Spontaneous Renal Artery Dissection Resulting in Renal Infarction: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Spontaneous renal artery dissection is a rare disease and an uncommon cause of renal infarction. The patient was a man who presented to the emergency room with sudden-onset right flank pain. Computed tomography revealed right renal infarction; thus, anticoagulation was initiated. Renal angiography revealed luminal narrowing of the segmental artery to the superior pole of right kidney without a dissection flap or false lumen. We stopped anticoagulation due to a lack of evidence of thrombi or luminal narrowing of the dissected vessels. When patients present with acute flank pain, it is important to suspect renal infarction and to perform a correct diagnostic workup, even when the patient shows normal urinalysis results and a normal LDH value.