Bilateral renal infarction following atrial fibrillation and thromboembolism and presenting as acute abdominal pain: a case report

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Renal infarct is rare and often misdiagnosed because the symptoms are misleading. The mechanisms are various, mainly thrombotic and embolic. Case presentation In this review, we report the case of a 61-year-old Tunisian woman presented to the emergency unit with a 4-hour history of abdominal pain diffused at both flanks, ultrasounds was performed to remove a surgical emergency, showed a peri-renal fluid collection with heterogeneous parenchyma. We followed by a CT scan, which confirmed the diagnosis of renal infarct. The patient was treated by heparin at a curative dose, and the outcome was favorable. Conclusion Diagnosis is difficult and should be considered in patients with inexplicable flank or abdominal pain and with risk factors to this disease. Our purpose is to raise clinician’s awareness for this condition so that they will be more likely to diagnose it. This will facilitate prompt diagnosis and treatment. A review of the literature was performed and the case is discussed in the context of the current knowledge of this condition.

Keywords

• Renal infarct
• Renal failure
• Acute abdominal ache
• Atrial fibrillation arrhythmia, Cortical rim sign.