Idiopathic acute renal vein thrombosis in a young healthy woman with no hypercoagulable state taking oral contraceptives

Renal veins rarely thrombose. However, when they do, the cause is almost always obvious. The clinical circumstances underlying acute or chronic renal vein thrombosis are well defined. Interestingly, the use of oral contraceptive medications is not recognized among the risk factors for renal vein thrombosis. We report a case of spontaneous renal vein thrombosis in an otherwise healthy young woman taking an oral contraceptive. This report is intended to alert clinicians to a previously unknown and serious event associated with the use of a common medication.