Library · Anatomy
Renal pelvis
Make it clearer
The renal pelvis is the wide part of the kidney's collecting system: the chamber that gathers the urine coming out of the collecting ducts and passes it to the ureter, the tube that runs down to the bladder. It is the funnel where several channels drain before entering a single tube.
The funnel has sections. It starts at the minor calyces, small cups; each one fits around a renal papilla, the tip where urine drips out of the kidney tissue. Then two or three of those cups join into a major calyx, and the major calyces empty into the renal pelvis.
That funnel is not passive. The pacemaker cells that start ureteral peristalsis, the wave of contraction that pushes urine downward, live in the minor calyces of the proximal renal pelvis. And the point where the pelvis funnels into the proximal ureter has a name of its own: the ureteropelvic junction.
In brief
The renal pelvis is the wide part of the renal collecting system, which receives urine from the collecting ducts and carries it to the ureter.
A funnel where several channels drain before entering a single tube.
The system begins at the minor calyces, each one cupped around a renal papilla, and two or three converge into a major calyx.
The pacemaker cells for ureteral peristalsis sit in the minor calyces of the proximal renal pelvis; the pelvis funnels into the proximal ureter at the ureteropelvic junction.
Sources (2)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingAnatomy, Abdomen and Pelvis: Kidneys, StatPearlsPublished
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingAnatomy, Abdomen and Pelvis: Ureter, StatPearlsPublished
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