[Renal arteriovenous fistulae (author's transl)].

Five cases of renal arteriovenous fistulae are described: four after needle biopsy of the kidney, one due to intrarenal aneurysmal rupture. One fistula closed spontaneously, the other four patients were operated on and treated by nephrectomy. 243 other cases from the literature were reviewed. The clinical manifestations involve the cardiovascular (arterial hypertension, congestive heart failure) or the urologic (hematuria, renal colic, flank pain) systems. The diagnosis is usually made by flank auscultation (which detects a continuous sound) and by use of renal arteriograms. The causes of these fistulae are numerous: congenital or acquired from biopsy examinations, trauma, surgery, neoplasia, infection, aneurysmal rupture. The usual treatment of these fistulae is a nephrectomy but selective embolization or direct surgical repair make possible, with greater frequency now, renal parenchymal preservation.