The first renal biopsies, made as much in adults as in children, were surgical. They were made to patients who were under renal decapsulation with the intention to reduce the kidney pressure, especially in cases of nephrotic syndrome. In 1944, Nils Alwall initiated the accomplishment of percutaneous kidney biopsies by means of a needle and aspiration at the University of Lund (Sweden), although his experience was published in 1952. The first article that had by subject the practice of a percutaneous renal biopsy was written in 1950 by a Cuban doctor, Antonino Pérez Ara, and published in a local journal with little diffusion. The first work that appeared in a Spanish journal (1953) about the practice of the percutaneus renal biopsies was not signed by any Spanish group but by members of the Hospital "Calixto García" of the University of The Havana, Cuba. The first article published in Spain regarding to this subject, saw the light in 1958, now 50 years ago, in the Revista Clínica Española. The two first signers were Alfonso de la Peña Pineda and Vicente Gilsanz García, professors of the Medicine Faculty of Madrid. Later, the practice of the percutaneous renal biopsy became general in other Spanish hospitals.