The key difference between left and right kidney is their position and size. The left kidney is slightly larger and higher in position than the right kidney.
Kidneys are a pair of organs that lie on either side of the vertebral column, and in the posterior abdominal wall underneath the diaphragm. However, there is a slight difference between left and right kidney.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is a Kidney
3. What is Left Kidney
4. What is Right Kidney
5. Side by Side Comparison – Left vs Right Kidney in Tabular Form
6. Summary
What is a Kidney?
Each kidney is about 11 to 14 cm in length, about 6cm in width and about 3cm in thickness. Each kidney contains millions of its functional units called nephrons. Kidneys are surrounded by a fibrous tissue called renal capsule. The cortex, medulla, pelvis, and hilum are the main parts of the kidney. Adrenal glands are located on the top of each kidney. Moreover, a major branch of the abdominal aorta called ‘renal artery’ enters from the concave side of the kidney. The major role of the kidney is to filter excess chemicals and wastes from the blood, which enter through renal arteries. These wastes extracted from the blood are eliminated from the body as urine. Other than excretion, homeostasis, osmoregulation, regulation of salts in the body, regulation of pH, and production of hormones are also important functions of kidneys.
What is Left Kidney?
The left kidney is positioned in the left side of the body, related to rib 11 and rib 12. Normally, the left kidney is 0.5 to 1.5 cm longer than the right kidney. When considering relationship to neighboring structures, the anterior surface of the left kidney is associated with left suprarenal gland, spleen, pancreas, stomach, left colic flexure of the large intestine, and the jejunum while the posterior surface is associated to rib11 and rib12, diaphragm, psoas major, quadratus lumborum, tendon of the transverses abdominis muscle, and transverse process of vertebra L1.
What is Right Kidney?
The right kidney is on the right side of the body, related to rib12. The anterior surface of the right kidney is associated with the right suprarenal gland, liver, descending part of the duodenum, right colic flexure of the large intestine, and the small intestine.
Moreover, posterior surface of the right kidney is associated with rib12, diaphragm, psoas major, quadratus lumborum, tendon of the transverse abdominal muscle, and transverse process of vertebra L1.
What is the difference between Left and Right Kidney?
There is a difference between left and right kideny is their position and size. The size of the left kidney is slightly larger than that of the right kidney. Moreover, the left kidney is positioned slightly upper than the right kidney due to the asymmetry within the abdominal cavity caused by the liver. Another difference between left and right kideny is that left renal artery serves blood to the left kidney while right renal artery serves blood to the right kidney. In addition, anterior and posterior surface of left and right kidneys are related to different neighboring structures of the body.
Summary – Left vs Right Kidney
In brief, kidneys are a pair of organs that lie on either side of the vertebral column; to be specific, they are in the posterior abdominal wall underneath the diaphragm. The key difference between left and right kidney is their position and size as the left kidney is slightly larger and higher in position than the right kidney.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Gray1123” By Henry Vandyke Carter – Henry Gray (1918) Anatomy of the Human Body (See “Book” section below)Bartleby.com: Gray’s Anatomy, Plate 1123 (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia