Renal fascia

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Renal fascia
Transverse section, showing the relations of the capsule of the kidney.
Sagittal section through posterior abdominal wall, showing the relations of the capsule of the kidney.
Latin fascia renalis
Gray's subject #253 1220
Dorlands/Elsevier f_03/12355506

The kidney and the adipose capsule are enclosed in a sheath of fibrous tissue continuous with the subperitoneal fascia, and named the renal fascia (also known as Gerota's fascia after the Romanian anatomist Dimitrie Gerota).

At the lateral border of the kidney the renal fascia splits into an anterior and a posterior layer.

  • The anterior layer is carried medialward in front of the kidney and its vessels, and is continuous over the aorta with the corresponding layer of the opposite side.

Above the suprarenal gland the two layers of the renal fascia fuse, and unite with the fascia of the diaphragm; below they remain separate, and are gradually lost in the subperitoneal fascia of the iliac fossa. The renal fascia is connected to the fibrous tunic of the kidney by numerous trabeculæ, which traverse the adipose capsule, and are strongest near the lower end of the organ. Behind the fascia renalis is a considerable quantity of fat, which constitutes the paranephric body. The kidney is held in position partly through the attachment of the renal fascia and partly by the apposition of the neighboring viscera.

Although the eponym Gerota's fascia is used for both the anterior and posterior layers of the renal fascia, this designation is not entirely correct. The posterior layer was described first by Emil Zuckerkandl in 1883, and is hence called Zuckerkandl's fascia or fascia retrorenalis. Twelve years later, Gerota discovered the anterior layer of the fascia, while taking in account Zuckerkandl's publication [1].

[edit] Relation to other layers

The renal fascia relates to the other layers in the following manner (moving from innermost to outermost):

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Chesbrough RM, Burkhard TK, Martinez AJ, Burks DD (1989). "Gerota versus Zuckerkandl: the renal fascia revisited". Radiology 173 (3): 845–6. PMID 2682777. 

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained herein may be outdated. Please edit the article if this is the case, and feel free to remove this notice when it is no longer relevant.