The patient: A 31-year-old man in Wardha, India
The symptoms: The man visited a medical center after experiencing five days of pain on the right side of his lower back, as well as a burning sensation during urination and a fever higher than 102.2 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius).
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What makes the case unique: Supernumerary kidneys are extremely rare, with fewer than 100 new cases reported worldwide each year.
A fused “horseshoe” appearance with another kidney is even rarer, with only five cases reported in the scientific literature. Third kidneys can also be completely separate or loosely connected to another kidney by a thin layer of tissue.
Sometimes, a patient learns of their extra kidney during treatment for an unrelated ailment. For instance, a man from Brazil discovered that he had a third kidney after he visited a hospital for lower back pain caused by a herniated disk, Live Science previously reported. When doctors performed a CT scan of the painful area, they found a supernumerary kidney fused to the right kidney near the man’s pelvis. All three kidneys appeared to be functioning normally and were not the cause of his discomfort in that case.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
Nimkar, S. V., Yelne, P., Gaidhane, S., Acharya, S., Kumar, S., & Batra, N. (2022). Supernumerary kidney (triple kidney) with Horseshoe Malformation: A case report. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.31436
