Renal artery at a glance
- What it is
- A large paired branch of the abdominal aorta supplying the kidney.
- Location
- It arises from the aorta at about L1-L2, runs laterally behind the renal vein, and divides near the hilum into anterior and posterior divisions and segmental arteries.
- Function
- It supplies the kidney and gives inferior suprarenal and ureteric branches.
- Body system
- Cardiovascular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA14752 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- The right renal artery passes behind the inferior vena cava and is longer than the left.
- Accessory renal arteries occur in about 25–30 percent of people.
- Each renal artery supplies about 600 mL of blood per minute at rest, about 20–25% of cardiac output for both kidneys together.
Clinical relevance
Renal artery stenosis can cause hypertension.
Structures next to the renal artery
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Abdominal aorta · cardiovascular
- Renal vein · cardiovascular
- Pancreas · digestive
- Posterior superior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Pancreatic duct · digestive
- Posterior division of renal artery · cardiovascular
- Duodenum · digestive
- Intervertebral disk of first lumbar vertebra · skeletal
- Posterior inferior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
- Anterior superior pancreaticoduodenal artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Renal artery (FMA14752). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §20.1 Structure and Function of Blood Vessels. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.