SUMMARY A review of 3,500 intravenous pyelograms of patients attending a general hospital has been carried out and has shown an incidence of 0.66 per cent, for radiologically diagnosed renal sinus lipomatosis. Material obtained from this review and previously published literature suggests that there is no significant sex preponderance, that the entity is most commonly discovered in the sixth decade of life, and that possible aetiological factors are urinary stones, chronic pyelonephritis, obesity and hypertension. In about one‐fifth of cases no cause could be found. No definite evidence has been found to consider conditions other than those given above as causes of renal sinus lipomatosis. Three reasons for the importance of this condition are given.

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