Urinary Tract and the infections - Diseases Treatment - Symptoms, Causes and Cure for Diseases on A to Z

Obstructions

The most common abnormalities involving the infections of urinary tract, and the most important from the point of view of kidney damage, are obstructions. Obstructions can occur in the area where the urine-collecting pelvis of the kidney merges with the narrow ureter, or they may occur anywhere along the ureter. For example, a stone or congenital stricture may obstruct the ureter any­where along its course. Or obstruction can occur within the bladder from a tumor which blocks the openings of both ureters into the bladder, or it can occur at the bladder neck from congenital lesions, tumors, stones, or strictures.

Obstruction anywhere along the line causes urine to back up, as a river backs up behind a dam. Back pressure produces hydronephrosis, a swelling of the kidney pelvis, and the ureter becomes distended and swollen above the level of obstruction. Hydraulic pressure squeezes kidney tissue which begins to atrophy. Functioning capacity is gradually lost and the inflated kidney is at risk of becoming totally useless. When destruction of any nature is discovered, it must be removed by appropriate therapy to prevent irreparable harm.

Ureters

Injuries which tear, puncture, or otherwise disrupt a ureter permit urine to seep into surrounding tissues like water from a burst pipe. Repair is surgical. Strictures and stones may cause obstruction. Tumors may produce obstruction and gross bleeding into the bladder. The most important single difference between lesions of the ureter and the kidney itself is that ureteral obstruction invariably produces pain, but lesions of the kidney frequently do not. The pain warning generally leads to early diagnosis and removal of an obstruction which can do untold harm to the kidney above it.

Cancer of the Bladder

It is extremely important that persons who have any difficulty or abnormality of urination be carefully examined to ascertain whether any lesions are present in the bladder.

Cancer of the bladder is one of the most common in this country. It is almost as common as cancer of the lungs, although it has not received as much publicity. At the University Hospitals in Iowa City, more than 75 new patients with cancer of the bladder are seen yearly.

The most common evidence of cancer of the bladder is grossly bloody urine, but frequency of urination and cloudy urine may also be important symptoms. When detected early, the outlook is good, when late, poor. Treatment consists of destruction of the tumor by a combination of surgical removal and irradiation therapy. Small tumors may be removed through the urethra with an instrument called the resectoscope. Larger lesions require more radical sur