Hydronephrosis is a rather dangerous disease, which is typical not only for adults, but also for children. As for adults, hydronephrosis is more often acquired, in children it is usually congenital. In this case, the baby begins to suffer from the very birth.
Features of hydronephrosis in children
In principle, hydronephrosis in both children and adults is an extension of the collective system of the kidney, resulting from the formation of an obstruction to urinary output. This obstacle is formed, as a rule, where the ureter and pelvis are connected. Urinary tracts are a system of kidney cups, renal pelvis, ureter, bladder and urethra. It is in the collective renal system that there is a problem.
What are the causes of hydronephrosis in children? As noted earlier, children often have congenital hydronephrosis of the kidney. The reasons, both internal, and external, for occurrence of this disease are enough. The internal cause is an innate narrowing of the ureter, as a result of underdevelopment of the lumen. One of the external causes is an additional vessel, which has a compressive effect on the ureter.
Is hydronephrosis dangerous to the baby? The answer is only one - of course, dangerous. Regardless of how much the obstruction of outflow of urine from the kidney is expressed, this condition still negatively affects the overall health of the child. The presence of hydronephrosis one way or another will cause serious violations in the work of the kidneys, or even pyelonephritis.
Symptoms and Diagnosis of Hydronephrosis in Children
One of the clear signs of hydronephrosis in children is the enlargement of the renal pelvis. This extension in most cases can be identified during pregnancy, with ultrasound of the fetus. This means that hydronephrosis is absolutely calmly diagnosed in utero. If it happened that this disease was not noticed, then the main sign of its presence in the body will be an admixture of blood in the urine of a newborn baby. The same signs of hydronephrosis are abdominal pain and volumetric education in the abdominal cavity.
What should I do if the child is diagnosed with hydronephrosis?
Treatment of hydronephrosis depends on the degree of its severity in the body. There are 3 degrees of the disease.
- If the first degree of hydronephrosis is detected, then doctors in most cases "let things go on their own". This can be explained by the fact that the initial manifestations of this pathology most often disappear without any medication treatment. Despite this, it is necessary to do ultrasound at least 2-3 times per year during the first three years of life.
- If the child is diagnosed with a second degree of hydronephrosis, the child's organism may well behave ambiguously. Sometimes in such cases the disease passes by itself, without treatment, in others, hydronephrosis requires surgical intervention.
- Pronounced hydronephrosis (hydronephrosis of the third degree) is characterized by a sudden violation of urinary outflow from the kidney, requires immediate surgical operation.
Dear parents, if your child needs surgery, do not panic at all. Now the medicine has reached a level that allows to carry out such operations with the help of an endoscope, completely painless, almost bloodless and safe. At the same time, ninety-five percent of the operations performed completely return to the child the healthy working capacity of his kidney. The main thing is to timely and competently approach the treatment issue. And be sure to strengthen the immunity of the child before the operation!