Morphometric Characteristics of 1200 Normal Kidneys in Cadavers at the Mashhad Forensic Medicine Center

Kidneys play an important role in excertion of bodily waste and the regulation of water and electrolyte. Currently available sources and books are based on anthropometric characteristics from Western countries. Determining national anthropometric measurements is a research priority in Iran. Based on a recent search, no study has been done on the standard data of kidneys in the Iranian population.

The present study investigated the morphometrical characteristics of the kidney (length, width, thickness, index, and weight) in an Iranian population.

This cross-sectional study was performed on 604 cadavers (122 females/482 males) with a mean age of 43.86 ± 19.09 years in Mashhad Forensic Medicine Center in 2015. After approval of the Ethical Committee, demographic characterizes of cadavers were recorded. Then, length, width, thickness, index and weight of kidney were measured using a vernier caliber. At the end, data were analyzed using SPSS software.

Themean length of the kidney was 11.12 ± 1.73 cm, mean width was 5.09 ± 2.19 cm, mean thickness was 2.60 ± 1.39 cm, kidney index was 2.33 ± 1.62, and mean weight was 143.03 ± 52.97 g. No significant difference was seen in the morphometric values of the kidney between males and females (P>0.05), but a significant correlation was found between the age and body surface area of the cadavers and the length, width, thickness, index, and weight of the studied kidneys (P<0.05).

The investigation of the morphologic characteristics of kidney is useful for both surgeons andanatomists. Besides, it provides valuable data on standard kidney sizes in Iranian population.