BENGALURU: A 38-year-old married woman who was detected to have a poorly functioning left kidney and was even advised to remove of the kidney but a private hospital in Bengaluru diagnosed the problem and her kidney was saved.
The woman and her husband visited NU hospitals in Padmanabhanagar for an expert opinion after a doctor elsewhere had apparently advised removal of left kidney considering it to be a congenital problem (by birth). Another Urologist advised her to forget about the kidney as it is poorly functioning.
"Investigations showed that she was completely normal without any symptoms but her reports suggested she had only a seven per cent function remaining in the left kidney,” said Dr Vinod Kumar, Consultant Urologist, NU Hospitals.
Am ultrasound done six years back had reported a completely normal left kidney which made doctors realise that this problem was not congenital as told earlier by the other doctor.
“This is quite important as patients need to preserve older reports which can help doctors in analysing the current situation,” doctors added.
On further imaging, it was found that the left ureter (pipe connecting the kidney to the bladder) was actually compressed by the large bulky uterus and this led to poor functioning of the left side kidney, because of the obstruction”, said Dr Vinod Kumar.
A consultation with a gynaecologist found that the patient had uterine adenomyosis (non-cancerous growth from uterus) which was causing her excessive bleeding and pain during menstruation and she had decided to get the uterus removed.
“After studying the kidney images and as the patient was young, it was decided to save the kidney by repairing the left ureter instead of removing it. Both the surgeries were planned at the same time by two teams consisting of Urologists and Gynecologists. "
Recently, the patient underwent successful removal of her uterus along with repair of the left ureter that was blocked.
Both the surgeries were done laparoscopically without making any large cuts in the abdomen. Doctors informed that the patient had recovered well and was discharged.