Ultrasound Registry Review (URR) Abdomen Practice Exam

The main idea is naming renal hematomas by their location relative to the cortex and capsule. When blood pools between the renal cortex and the capsule, it sits under the capsule but outside the kidney tissue—that’s a subcapsular hematoma. This distinguishes it from intrarenal hematomas (inside the kidney parenchyma), peripelvic hematomas (around the renal pelvis), or extracapsular/perirenal hematomas (outside the capsule in the perirenal space). On imaging, this appears as a crescent-shaped collection hugging the kidney surface and compressing the underlying cortex. So, the hematoma located between the cortex and the capsule is subcapsular (intracapsular).