Health encyclopaedia

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Hydronephrosis

Hydronephrosis is a condition in which one or both of your kidneys become stretched, or swollen, due to a build-up of pressure when urine can’t drain out of your kidney.

This build-up of urine is usually caused by a blockage in the normal flow of urine out of your kidneys, down the urine tubes (ureters), to your bladder. The blockage can be at any point of this flow from kidney to bladder, but is most common where the wide urine-collecting system of each kidney (the renal pelvis) joins the narrow tube of the ureter.

Occasionally, hydronephrosis can be caused by urine flowing back from your bladder to your kidneys. This can happen if the valve in your bladder that normally prevents this ‘backwash’ is damaged or obstructed.

Hydronephrosis can occur in people of any age, including unborn babies, where it will be detected by the routine ultrasound test given to all pregnant women.

About 1 in every 300 people has one kidney affected by hydronephrosis, and about 1 in every 600 has both kidneys affected.

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