Renal atrophy

Last revised by David Luong on 12 Jul 2021

Renal atrophy refers to a shrunken small appearance of the kidneys usually due to a secondary cause in contrast to renal hypoplasia which is the term given to a congenitally small kidney.

Renal atrophy can be unilateral or bilateral depending on the cause and when unilateral, the left kidney is thought to be more affected 2.

Pathology

Etiology

Some of the causes of renal atrophy include:

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