Spontaneous renal infarct heralding bowel ischaemia in an adult male: lessons to learn from a rare clinical association.

Spontaneous renal artery dissection (SRAD) is a rare entity with less than 200 cases reported in literature. It usually affects middle-aged men and the clinical presentation is non-specific. Many times it is associated with conditions such as hypertension, fibromuscular dysplasia or vasculitides. We report the case of a patient who initially had renal infarct due to SRAD and then progressed to have bowel ischaemia. The renal infarct preceded bowel ischaemia in this patient and to the best of our knowledge this is the first such association reported in literature. Our report emphasises the point that whenever this condition is diagnosed in a patient one should be vigilant for other vascular disorders.