27-year-old’s kidney is saved after ureter expands thrice its size
dubai — After several misdiagnoses that caused a 27-year-old to lose her kidney, Latifa Hospital doctors succeeded in salvaging a patient’s remaining kidney by performing a minimally invasive surgery to rectify her ureter, after it has expanded three times its original size.
The patient was diagnosed with bilateral hydronephrosis and hydroureter, which is the swelling of the kidneys when urine flow is obstructed in any of part of the urinary tract.
Professor Arnaud Wattiez, gynaecology consultant at Latifa Hospital, said the patient’s ureter swelled three times its original size due to hydronephrosis, meaning the ureter and the renal pelvis (the connection of the ureter to the kidney) are overfilled with urine.
In the patient’s case, this was caused by endometriosis, a condition resulting from the appearance of endometrial tissue outside the uterus and causing pelvic pain, especially associated with menstruation.
Professor Wattiez, along with Dr Razan Nasir, gynaecology specialist at Latifa Hospital, conducted a surgery to relieve the obstruction. He said that relieving
We had to conduct a complicated surgery — that took more than five hours — to reimplant the ureter in the bladder, which is a minimally invasive procedure conducted by endoscopy.”
Professor Arnaud Wattiez, gynaecology consultant, Latifa Hospital
the obstruction was necessary to stop her from losing her right kidney, as she had already lost her left one.
“We then had to conduct a complicated surgery — that took more than five hours — to reimplant the ureter in the bladder, which a minimally invasive procedure conducted by endoscopy,” he said.
Dr Nasir said the condition can be caused by various congenital deformities of the ureter, kidney stones, endometriosis (in young patients) to name a few.
“The woman, whose case is considered relatively rare, came from Pakistan to specifically be treated at Latifa hospital. Her surgery was a success and she was discharged and can now go back.”