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hydronephrosis
What are the symptoms of hydronephrosis?
If it is mild hydronephrosis, patients usually do not have obvious clinical symptoms; if it is moderate to severe hydronephrosis, patients mainly experience discomfort and pain in the lower back, and may even have abdominal distension. Once hydronephrosis is complicated by bacterial infection, symptoms may include chills, fever, frequent urination, urgent urination, and general muscle soreness, etc. If there is long-term and extensive hydronephrosis, it can lead to chronic obstructive kidney disease, with symptoms including reduced urine output, swelling of the lower limbs, general fatigue, poor appetite, and increased blood pressure. Patients may experience dizziness, anemia, and decreased kidney function. Therefore, attention must be paid to hydronephrosis. In cases of mild hydronephrosis, the main approach is follow-up and observation. If the hydronephrosis is severe, kidney function tests are required, and surgical drainage should be performed to treat the hydronephrosis.
Do you need to be hospitalized for hydronephrosis?
In most cases, hospitalization is required for the treatment of hydronephrosis, especially when it is first discovered. Hospitalization is primarily for assessing the severity of the patient's condition, identifying the cause of the condition, and determining the treatment plan. These are the main purposes of hospitalization. If the patient needs the aforementioned objectives to be met, it often requires surgery or hospital treatment. Therefore, patients with hydronephrosis need to identify the cause, which is often related to issues in the urinary system such as stones, tumors, or prostate enlargement. More complex examinations may be needed, and surgical treatment may be necessary, all of which need to be completed under hospitalization conditions. However, if the patient only has prostate enlargement and does not require surgery, placing a urinary catheter can resolve the issue, and such minor cases might also be handled on an outpatient basis.
Does hydronephrosis cause kidney pain?
Whether hydronephrosis causes kidney pain depends on the cause of the hydronephrosis. Hydronephrosis can be caused by ureteral stones. When the stone gets stuck in the ureter, it can prevent the urine produced by the kidneys from being expelled, thus causing hydronephrosis. This situation generally presents as pain in the kidney area, discomfort due to swelling in the lower back, and may also be accompanied by symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. If the stone scratches the wall of the ureter, there may also be blood in the urine. Moreover, hydronephrosis can also be caused by other diseases, such as benign prostatic hyperplasia. Due to the compression of the urethra by benign prostatic hyperplasia causing the urethra to narrow, bilateral kidney hydronephrosis may also occur. This situation generally does not involve pain in the kidney area. The main symptoms presented by the patient include discomfort due to excessive filling of urine in the bladder, leading to discomfort and pain in the lower abdomen.
Symptoms of hydronephrosis
Hydronephrosis itself may not have any symptoms, but when hydronephrosis significantly increases, patients can feel soreness and discomfort in the lumbar region or upper abdomen. If the hydronephrosis is caused by urinary tract stones blocking the passage, patients often experience kidney pain and visible blood in the urine; if it is caused by congenital narrowing, it is prone to be complicated by urinary tract infections, with symptoms such as chills, fever, back pain, frequent urination, urgency, and painful urination. Sometimes, hydronephrosis occurs intermittently, with the patient experiencing abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and reduced urine output during an episode. The pain disappears after a few hours, followed by the excretion of a large amount of urine. This condition is often seen in ureteral obstruction. Of course, prolonged hydronephrosis can lead to renal failure, causing symptoms such as fatigue, poor spirit, anemia, and even swelling.
What is the best treatment for hydronephrosis?
The most common cause of hydronephrosis is due to kidney stones or ureteral stones blocking the urethra, leading to poor drainage of urine from the kidneys. Generally, if hydronephrosis occurs, the first step is to check the renal ultrasound and, if necessary, undergo cystography to determine the cause of the hydronephrosis. If it is confirmed to be stones, it is important to check the size of the stones. If the stone is smaller than five millimeters, you can drink more water, exceeding 3000 milliliters per day. This can help flush the stones out through the urine by being more active and jumping around. If the stone is relatively large, it may require extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy or ureteroscopic stone removal. Generally, for hydronephrosis, it is still recommended to drink plenty of water and eat a light diet, avoiding spicy and irritating foods.
Is hydronephrosis prone to recurrence?
Whether hydronephrosis is prone to recurrence depends on the cause of the hydronephrosis. Common causes of hydronephrosis in clinical practice are as follows: First, urinary tract stones. When a stone is lodged in the ureter or urethra, it can cause urinary obstruction. The urine produced by the kidneys cannot be expelled in time, leading to hydronephrosis. If the stones in the urinary system can be completely removed, it generally does not recur easily. However, if there are still quite a few stones in the kidney or bladder after clearing the urinary tract, it is more likely to recur, because the stones might move down, get lodged in the ureter or urethra again, and cause hydronephrosis. Second, prostate enlargement. Hydronephrosis caused by prostate enlargement is generally more likely to recur because the prostate continues to grow in size. Even if the enlarged prostate is surgically removed, it still might lead to urethral stricture, thereby causing hydronephrosis again.
What department should I go to for hydronephrosis?
Hydronephrosis refers to the accumulation of urine in parts such as the renal pelvis and calyces due to some reason causing the urinary system to not smoothly excrete urine. After the kidneys produce urine, it cannot be excreted smoothly, leading to the accumulation called hydronephrosis. Generally, it is necessary to visit the urology department, as the most common causes of hydronephrosis are stones or tumors in the urinary system and prostatic hyperplasia, among other issues, all of which require urological treatment. In most cases, surgery may be necessary to relieve the obstruction and resolve the hydronephrosis. However, there are also a small number of patients who may have hydronephrosis due to other reasons, such as cervical cancer or colorectal cancer patients, where enlarged tumors may compress the ureter leading to hydronephrosis. Patients with cervical cancer need to undergo surgical treatment in gynecology, while those with colorectal cancer may need treatment in general surgery.
Can people with hydronephrosis drink water?
Whether patients with hydronephrosis can drink water depends on whether the hydronephrosis has been resolved. Hydronephrosis occurs due to a blockage in the urinary system, often caused by inflammation, scarring, or adhesions of the ureters, or by obstructions such as stones or tumors in the urinary tract, or possibly by an enlarged prostate, leading to the inability of the bladder to properly expel urine. In summary, when the urine produced by the kidneys cannot be properly expelled from the body, it leads to the expansion of the renal pelvis and calyces, known as hydronephrosis. Drinking water at this time can certainly aggravate the condition of hydronephrosis if the body is already struggling to expel fluids. Therefore, if this blockage remains unresolved, patients should limit their intake of fluids. However, if the obstruction is cleared and the urinary tract is smooth, allowing urine to be expelled normally, drinking water is permissible.
Is hydronephrosis of the second degree severe?
Hydronephrosis grade two, this "grade two" is likely a classification used in ultrasound or CT imaging. For hydronephrosis, the presence of condition itself indicates that the pathology has already affected kidney function. The most common causes include ureteral obstruction, or obstruction at the renal pelvis exit, typically due to stones or tumors, or narrowing caused by plastic tubes. Once hydronephrosis occurs, these conditions have already altered kidney function, necessitating further diagnosis to identify the cause, with surgery possibly being required. The most common objective assessment is a CT scan of the urinary system, with enhanced CT being the most accurate for understanding the severity of the hydronephrosis. Also, it helps identify the location of the ureteral obstruction, and thirdly, it can help ascertain the cause and provide treatment.
Will people with hydronephrosis have edema?
Hydronephrosis can potentially cause patients to exhibit symptoms of edema. Urine is produced by the kidneys and is expelled from the body through the urinary system, including the ureters and bladder. If there is an obstructive issue in the urinary system, the urine produced by the kidneys cannot be excreted smoothly, leading to hydronephrosis. When a large amount of fluid cannot be excreted, it eventually causes edema in the body. However, if the patient has hydronephrosis on only one side and the other kidney is healthy, the healthy kidney can fully compensate for the entire kidney function and sufficiently excrete fluids. Therefore, patients with unilateral hydronephrosis often do not show obvious signs of edema. But if a patient has bilateral hydronephrosis, and urine produced by both kidneys cannot be excreted, the patient will exhibit signs of edema.