Return of Renal Function after Late Embolectomy

MAJOR renal-artery embolism is an uncommon event. The prognosis for return of function in cases of clinically total occlusion is considered poor unless flow is re-established promptly. If a single functioning kidney is involved, the situation is particularly grave, for normothermic human renal tissue has been reported experimentally to lose viability after two hours of total arterial occlusion.1 This report describes a case in which viability was sustained by surgical intervention thirty-nine days after an episode of embolism that produced oliguria.Case ReportW.S., a 57-year-old married woman, was transferred to the Strong Memorial Hospital on February 21, 1966, complaining . . .