Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

The conditions which lead to the deposit of oxalate of lime are not sufficiently well known to make the prophylaxis of this calculus easy by any chemical means, except by dilution of the urine and by a general tonic regimen with abundant exercise.

Although it is not usual for a calculus to be arrested in the ureter after having once fairly entered, this sometimes occurs, and the result is stoppage of the flow of urine upon that side, dilatation of the ureter, followed in turn by dilatation of the pelvis, and finally atrophy of the {47} renal substance. This does not happen suddenly, however. The urinary passages do not rapidly dilate to any considerable extent, and their increase in calibre under pressure from within has been considered a growth rather than a distension. This condition will be treated under the head of Hydro-nephrosis.

Calculous Pyelitis.

When a calculus remains in the pelvis of the kidney without completely obstructing the flow of urine, it usually increases in size, while the resulting irritation may be the cause of fresh deposits either upon the surface of the original calculus or in the form of new concretions. In this way immense deposits of urinary salts may be formed. Thus, in a case given in detail in the second series of _Boston City Hospital Reports_ there was found upon the one side a calculus which when perfectly clean and dry weighed 204 grammes, filling the whole dilated pelvis and sending prolongations into the calices, so that its shape was compared to that of a hippopotamus. The resemblance was made more complete by the wrinkling and roughness of the exterior. In the other kidney were several hundred calculi, from the size (and shape) of a large almond down to that of white mustard-seed. The latter were composed of two apparently distinct substances--one a reddish-brown, looking like uric acid, and the other of the color and polish of white marble; both, however, were phosphates.

The amount of local disturbance produced in the pelvis of the kidney by the presence of a foreign body seems to depend somewhat upon the character of its surface. Rough and uneven calculi, such as oxalate of lime, are apt to produce inflammation much more rapidly than smooth and polished ones, but it is seldom that any calculus remains without some pyelitis. At first only a loss of polish of the mucous membrane, with a little increase of mucus, may be observed, to which succeed roughening and suppuration with occasional fibrinous deposit. The pelvis, more or less dilated, may then contain a quantity of mucopurulent urine, with perhaps some blood, in which are concealed the stones which have given rise to this condition, and often phosphatic deposits not converted into calculi.

Pyelitis is divided by some foreign writers into catarrhal and diphtheritic--a distinction rather of degree than of kind. The mucous membrane of the pelvis may, like other mucous membranes rarely, and like serous membranes often, throw out a fibrinous exudation which takes the form of false membrane. This indicates intensity of inflammation, but has no necessary connection with diphtheria. A true diphtheritic pyelitis, that is, connected with the general disease known as diphtheria, is of course a conceivable lesion, but certainly not a common one.

The renal symptoms--especially true albuminuria, so common and of such grave import in this disease--are due to lesions of the secreting substance, and not of the pelvis. It is important, but not always easy, to decide whether there is more albumen present than is to be accounted for by the pus. The pyelitis may be acute or chronic, being {48} characterized by the intensity of the attack and the rapidity with which the symptoms subside. The prospect of a given attack being acute is decided largely by the supposed cause: a small calculus passing into the ureter undoubtedly gives rise in most instances to a localized pyelitis, which subsides after the cause of irritation has disappeared. An inflammation from a larger one remaining is naturally of slower development, but may be more acute while the calculus remains rough and irritating, and partially subside when it becomes covered with a smoother coating of phosphates. The mucous membrane, however, is not likely to regain a completely healthy condition.

The mucous membrane in severe pyelitis may be deeply eroded, and even perforated, so that the contents of the pelvis escape and give rise to abscess in the perinephritic or prevertebral cellular tissue, which may be discharged through the loins with resulting cure, or the establishment of a fistula, from which issues pus and at times calculi. Among the rarer results of perforation may be mentioned gastro-nephric and duodeno-nephric fistulæ. These might be diagnosticated by the presence of food and other intestinal contents in the urine, provided that the ureter were still pervious. Vomiting of calculi and urine has been reported by the older writers.

The writer is indebted to J. R. Chadwick for references to two modern cases--one where such a fistula was diagnosticated during life;[16] and another where a gastro-nephric fistula was found after death.[17] In the latter case a diagnosis would have been impossible, as the kidney was disorganized and the ureter occluded. The extent to which the renal secreting substance suffers in calculous pyelitis varies considerably, and is very probably connected with the amount of pressure exercised either by the calculus itself when it attains a large size or by the urine in cases of obstruction. It is rare for either pyelitis or hydro-nephrosis to exist entirely independently.

[Footnote 16: _Giornale di Anat. e Fis. path._, iii. p. 370.]

[Footnote 17: Marquezy, _Thèse de Paris_, 1856.]

The changes which take place are those of atrophy. Interstitial suppurative nephritis seems to follow this form of pyelitis much less frequently than that which is due to extension upward of disease in the lower urinary passages.

Corresponding to the pressure of solid or fluid, the papillæ are eroded and the straight tubes shortened. In the cortical substance, which soon becomes diminished in thickness, the interstitial tissue is hypertrophied, dense, and hard, while the tubes become smaller or in time disappear. The Malpighian bodies are changed to dense masses of connective tissue, but are still plainly recognizable, irregularly crowded together instead of being arranged as usual in more or less symmetrical double rows. The cortex of the kidney may thus become but little more than a mere skin stretched over a large stone, with perhaps here and there a piece of renal structure recognizable and in a comparatively normal condition.

The extremer grades of hydro-nephrosis do not seem to be met with in this form of atrophy, but the pelvis is considerably dilated, while its internal capacity is also added to by the atrophy of the renal substance. The interior of the cyst thus formed usually retains distinct traces of its original division into infundibula, and may be, as already stated, almost filled by the calculus. Kidneys undergoing this process of degeneration {49} often furnish up to a short time before death a normal, or even more than normal, amount of urine, and one is often astonished to find how little disturbance of elimination has been caused in cases where the true kidney-structure seems to the naked eye to have been almost entirely destroyed.

The DIAGNOSIS of a calculus remaining in the pelvis of the kidney depends chiefly on the determination of hæmaturia and pyelitis for which no other cause can be found, and upon the presence of pain in one loin. It is naturally greatly assisted by the presence or history of renal colic. An aching pain in the loins, more or less permanent, is a frequent but not invariable symptom. It may be such as to prevent the patient from standing upright, and cause him to assume an habitually stooping posture in standing or walking. A careful examination of the urine in conjunction with this symptom, especially if an unusually abnormal condition has been preceded by an exacerbation of the pain, may make the diagnosis almost certain. In the beginning of a case occasional not severe hæmaturia, with some increase of mucus or a little pus, may be all that can lead to the suspicion of calculus as the cause of pain. At a later period an increase of these symptoms, with a considerable quantity of the peculiar irregular epithelium lining the pelvis, may be observed. The latter constituent, however, can hardly be looked upon as entirely conclusive of pyelitis, since the lower urinary passages may give rise to cells of about the same form and size, and the irregularity is likely to be increased beyond recognition by the presence of inflammation. They may also undergo change of form in the urine. The presence of transparent or other casts denotes the irritation of the renal parenchyma.

The point of chief difficulty in the diagnosis of pyelitis is the determination of the origin of the pus, whether from the kidney or the bladder. Cystitis may be only partly excluded by the absence of dysuria. A point of considerable weight is the reaction of the urine, that from the kidneys being usually acid, while that from the bladder, when cystitis of much severity exists, is alkaline or rapidly becomes so. The pus coming from the kidneys is more intimately mixed with the often profuse urine than when formed in the bladder. The whole of it does not in the former case completely subside, but remains in sufficient quantity to form a turbid or opalescent mixture--the polyuric trouble of Felix Guyon, according to whom this condition in an acid urine is strongly indicative of renal as distinguished from vesical lesion. In cystitis the pus subsides in more or less distinct masses, but if the urine is alkaline, or when it becomes so, is altered to a ropy consistency usually spoken of as muco-purulent.

The procedure recommended by Thompson may be resorted to in order to determine whether the urine comes from the kidneys loaded with cellular detritus, or whether the addition is made in the bladder. This consists in washing out thoroughly the bladder with several successive quantities of water through a single catheter, until the water comes away clear and the bladder has contracted itself around the instrument, when the urine from the kidneys will for a time come through direct and comparatively uncontaminated.

In cases where the urine is alkaline in the kidney, which may happen, distinctions founded on the reaction cannot be of value, and the same {50} may be said of cases where cystitis is known to exist, but where there is in addition a possibility of a renal calculus. In these some such mechanical procedure as that just described must be resorted to.

The presence of a calculus as a cause of pyelitis cannot always be demonstrated, but may be more or less strongly suspected according to the conclusiveness with which any other cause can be excluded, by the definiteness and character of the local pain, the history of renal colic, the presence of uric-acid crystals in the urine, and perhaps in some cases the results of palpation. The exploring-needle may be used, and may of course, if reaching the calculus and giving a characteristic grating feeling and sound, give absolutely positive results; but a failure to strike a stone could hardly be regarded as proof positive of its absence.

The diagnosis of renal calculus from lumbago or neuralgia should rest, in case the pain is severe enough or long-continued enough to really cause the question to arise, upon an examination of the urine.

A very important point in diagnosis, especially when the question of operative procedure arises, is that of the soundness of the other kidney. Accidental circumstances will sometimes permit this to be determined; as, for instance, when one ureter is suddenly blocked by a calculus, and at the same time the urine, which has previously been found purulent, bloody, and containing renal cells and casts, becomes clear and normal until the obstruction is removed and the abnormal ingredients reappear. Cases of exstrophied bladder, where of course it is possible easily to separate the urine of the two kidneys, may be, from their rarity, practically left out of the account. Various proposals for obtaining the separate urine of the two kidneys have been made. A small catheter has been passed into the female ureter through the dilated urethra. In the female also a finger in the vagina may succeed in temporarily blocking one ureter, while the secretion of the other alone is filling the bladder, a catheter with a bent portion at the end being used for making counter-pressure from the inside. It would probably remain doubtful in most cases how successful this manoeuvre had been in completely stopping the flow of urine, although experiments upon the dead body have been made by Polk,[18] who proposes the method, with entire success. The male bladder offers greater difficulties, which are at present insurmountable. A point opposite the lower end of the ureter can, it is true, be reached with some difficulty in the rectum, and it is possible that a catheter might be so adjusted as to make counter-pressure to the finger in this position, but there could be no certainty that the occlusion was complete.

[Footnote 18: _New York Med. Journ._, Feb. 17, 1883.]

The whole hand in the rectum, after Simon's method, would enable the object to be accomplished with more certainty, but this procedure has risks of its own. A staff with flattened extremity, as suggested by Weir,[19] may more conveniently, though with somewhat less certainty, be used for pressing from within the rectum on the ureter where it passes over the brim of the pelvis. A compressorium consisting of an empty and folded bag, to be introduced into the bladder and there expanded by the introduction of metallic mercury, has been described and used, with the result of partly checking the flow of urine.[20] The proposition to pinch up the extremity of one ureter in the bladder by means of the lithotrite is still {51} more open to the objection of great uncertainty, and would, to say the least, demand very special skill to obtain even a chance of success.

[Footnote 19: _Ibid._, Dec. 27, 1884.]

[Footnote 20: See Weir's article, just quoted.]

None of these procedures have as yet been put to practical use, and it is doubtful whether any of them, unless we except perhaps the use of a staff in the rectum, would be justified for purely diagnostic purposes, considering the great risks involved. For the present, at least, the possibility of separating the secretion of one kidney from that of the other must be looked upon as depending chiefly upon accident, and in case of contemplated operation it is not possible to assure one's self of the integrity of the other kidney before the abdomen is opened. In many cases after opening the abdomen both kidneys may be examined before deciding upon further steps. Lawson Tait considers an exploratory incision distinctly indicated whenever abdominal disease not malignant threatens the life of the patient. The soundness of the other kidney, however, may be considered highly probable if in spite of demonstrated extensive disease of one kidney a sufficient quantity of urine with a normal amount of urea and salts continues to be formed.

The SYMPTOMS arising from a large calculus producing destruction of the renal substance, when both kidneys are affected or one is insufficient to supplement the partial or total loss of the other, may closely resemble those of diffuse nephritis, either interstitial or parenchymatous, or perhaps it would be more correct to say that these forms of nephritis are the symptoms of such a change. Thus we may have polyuria, albumen, and casts, dyspnoea, dropsy, and uræmia. The enormous calculus described above as resembling a hippopotamus had given rise to no marked symptoms until palpitation, dyspnoea, and oedema were complained of; the heart was hypertrophied.

The TREATMENT of calculi remaining in the kidney is, so far as medical means are concerned, that which has been already described, and, to say the least, is not a high degree of efficiency. Rest, diuretics, and solvents of the kind already spoken of, and narcotics, may afford relief, and in the case of quite small calculi, such as sometimes remain in the kidney even when not too large to pass through the ureter, solution is possible; but there is even less reason to suppose that large calculi can be dissolved in the kidney than that the tendency to their formation can be counteracted.

Surgery, however, offers in some cases complete relief. Two operations have been undertaken for this purpose, of which the surgical details are here inappropriate, but the indications for which may very properly be discussed from a medical point of view. These are nephrotomy or nephro-lithotomy, the removal of the stone through an incision in the pelvis or secreting substance of the kidney; and nephrectomy, or the removal of the whole gland with its contents. It is obvious that the indications for these two operations are quite different, although cases are likely to arise where it will be well to change the plan from the former to the latter during the operation.

When a sinus exists from the inflamed and perforated pelvis, or an abscess connected with the kidney has been recently opened, it may be dilated or enlarged by incision sufficiently to allow the passage of an exploring finger and forceps. The large arterial and venous branches which surround the pelvis make it safer to trust rather to dilatation or {52} tearing to get through to its interior than to incision, which must, if necessary, be practised with great care. Experience has shown that an incision can be made through the renal substance without great danger, the hemorrhage being chiefly venous. This incision has been made in several cases, and where the secreting portion is much atrophied is obviously of still less consequence than in the healthy kidney. After the removal of the calculus, drainage may be established for a time until the pelvis has resumed its normal condition or the purulent discharge has diminished.

If no sinus exists, but a diagnosis has been clearly made, or even if symptoms of sufficient severity exist to justify a strong suspicion and decisive treatment, an incision may be made along the edge of the erector spinæ or the great mass of muscle attached to the spinal column and passing through the quadratus lumborum. An incision outside of the quadratus lumborum will come upon the kidney, but too far outside to make a direct access to the pelvis practicable. If it be known, however, that the cut must be made through the kidney itself, then the primary incision through the skin may be made in the exterior line, and will be less deep. Measuring along the last rib two inches from its extremity, and then at right angles an inch and a half downward and inward, will indicate a point at which a puncture will reach the renal pelvis. This may be made the central point of an incision, though it is often necessary to utilize the whole space from the last rib to the crest of the ilium. After reaching and exploring the kidney with the finger, the incision may be carried cautiously through the pelvis and enlarged by dilatation or tearing.

In order to feel the calculus it may be necessary to have counter-pressure made from the front of the abdomen in order to lift or fix the kidney, and a case has been mentioned where the finger, having failed to reach a calculus behind, was carried around and in front of the kidney with success. If the calculus is too large or too irregular to be removed whole, it may be broken and extracted piecemeal.

This lumbar method is undoubtedly to be preferred when it is known that a simple nephrotomy will be sufficient or when the more or less diseased kidney is to be treated as a cyst or abscess by drainage. It is open to the objection that if it be found desirable to change the operation into an nephrectomy, it is not quite so easy to remove a large mass in this way as by laparotomy, and the pedicle is much less accessible. The objection is not sufficient, however, to contraindicate it in many cases, for additional room can be obtained by resection of the last rib. So far as the writer is aware, laparotomy has never been performed for the simple removal of a calculus.

Nephrectomy, or removal of the kidney, may be required for various conditions, among which is to be reckoned a renal calculus with pyelitis of sufficient severity to threaten life or give rise to constant suffering; but as it is often indicated for other reasons, its consideration will be deferred.

Pyelitis may be excited by the presence of other foreign bodies, among which are coagula and parasites. An acute pyelitis may accompany an acute nephritis. Occasionally also an idiopathic pyelitis is said to be met with, but it must be difficult in such a case to exclude the presence of some irritant which has escaped observation.

{53} Secondary Pyelitis.

Pyelitis is most frequently excited by the propagation of an inflammatory process upward from the bladder, and hence it is, with its resulting effects upon the renal structure, one of the most important complications of chronic cystitis and of surgical affections in the lower urinary passages. Anatomically, a pyelitis of this character differs but little from that of local origin described above, except that the contents of the inflamed cavity do not include deposits of urinary salts unless such have been formed secondarily. It is, however, more likely to be severe, and especially to affect the true renal substance more rapidly and more seriously, and consequently to be attended with constitutional symptoms in an acute form.

Two factors are of especial importance in determining the rate of development and severity of pyelitis supervening on affections of the urinary passages: First, the amount of obstruction which exists to the exit of the urine; and, secondly, the character of the cystitis as regards decomposition of the urine. It is obvious that whatever sends urine back into the ureters, or, what is the same thing, prevents its passage downward, will by keeping it longer in contact with the mucous membrane intensify whatever morbid action such an irritant would have, and of course a putrid or ammoniacal urine will induce inflammatory action, while a normal secretion might remain for a long time innocuous. Hence it is that we may have hydro-nephrosis and pyelitis entirely distinct from each other, but are very likely to have both combined in most cases.

It is especially in surgical affections of the urinary passages, involving, as many of them do, considerable obstruction with a more or less intense cystitis, that we meet with the combination of the two conditions. Such are enlarged prostate with its usual obstruction and frequent chronically-distended bladder, with ammoniacal, purulent, and decomposing urine, or stricture with frequent over-contraction of the bladder, forcing the urine backward as well as forward. In diseases of the female generative organs we are more likely to have the hydro-nephrosis and pyelitis as separate affections, since the compression which so frequently arises in cases of cancer or of pelvic inflammation is likely to be above the bladder, thus preventing the regurgitation of urine as well as its passage downward.

Two conditions of the renal substance seem to result from pyelitis of this kind: one, a chronic nephritis already described, with increased formation of connective tissue, atrophy of the tubes and the Malpighian bodies (the latter, however, remaining recognizable, although crowded together), and a general, and at times extreme, shrinking of the whole organ. The other is more acute, and consists in the formation of abscesses of small size, which in the medullary portion are somewhat elongated and arranged parallel to the tubes, and in the cortical portion preserve a less degree of regularity, though still having some reference to the columnar arrangement of the masses of convoluted tubes. The intervening structure is usually in a marked condition of parenchymatous degeneration. This is the so-called surgical kidney.

Whether the one or the other of these processes shall take place probably depends chiefly on the infectiousness of the cystitis or of the urine {54} contained in the bladder and backing up into the kidneys, although it is not necessary that any degree of dilatation should be present for this condition to arise. Sometimes also the surgical kidney may be found when the original cystitis is not at all severe.

The DIAGNOSIS of a pyelitis supervening on a cystitis is not always easy, but may frequently be inferred, and it is possible that by careful treatment of the cystitis it may be reduced to a very low grade of severity, while the pyelitis still remains, which will permit the diagnosis to be somewhat more conclusive.

If the urine comes acid, but pus-laden, from the kidney, it will soon assume the contrary reaction in the bladder, and the pus will be changed by the ammonia into so-called muco-pus; the cells supposed to be characteristic of the pelvis of the kidney will, like the pus-cells, be so altered by the same causes, and so intermixed with similar cells from the bladder, that the distinction will be difficult or impossible. The presence of a few hyaline casts is very likely to be noticed, and indicates irritation, or perhaps a more decided implication, of the renal substance. Nothing, however, can be inferred from failure to find them. Hæmaturia is not so necessary an accompaniment of this form of pyelitis as of that arising from a mechanical irritant in the kidney. If, however, the urine does not become rapidly altered in the bladder, or if by any of the processes mentioned above the kidney urine can be obtained in a condition of comparative purity, the microscopic indications become more precise.

A dull pain and tenderness in the loins and along the course of the ureters is a symptom of value, though by no mean conclusive, and should lead to a suspicion of pyelitis. A polyuria of short duration may be a purely nervous symptom, but a persistent flow of pale urine, which fails to settle clear, and of which the turbidity is caused by pus, is due in great probability to renal disease, and if it could be shown to come in this condition from the kidney would almost certainly denote pyelitis.

The rational SYMPTOMS are of the greatest value as determining the extent and severity of the disease, although it may be impossible to distribute them with absolute exactness between the various organs involved--that is, bladder, pelvis, and renal substance.

The occurrence of a single chill, or even of several, with rapid subsidence of the fever, is not conclusive, since the ordinary urinary fever supervening on surgical operations, even so slight as passing the catheter, is not necessarily connected with renal disease.

A long-continued fever, not especially intense and of a more or less distinctly intermittent type, especially if becoming at some definite period decidedly more intense, is likely to mean the invasion of a new tract of mucous membrane, such as that of the renal pelves or even of the kidney-substance itself. Continued or remittent urinary fever is of very grave import. With this fever will appear the dry red tongue and the distressing anorexia, nausea, and vomiting, with either constipation or diarrhoea.

The TREATMENT of this form of pyelitis, so far as it differs from that of the calculous variety, depends largely upon that of the causative cystitis, though not entirely, since if it has once assumed the chronic condition it does not necessarily subside even if the cystitis be cured. The essentials of treatment may be said to be drainage from below and washing from below and from above. The measures for carrying the first of {55} these indications are those which are also required for the causative cystitis, and, being chiefly surgical, a minute description of them does not come within the scope of this article. They may be simply catheterization, dilatation, divulsion or section of a stricture of the urethra, drainage of the bladder through the rectum or through the perineum.

It is not out of place, however, even in a strictly medical essay, to point out the extreme importance, not only in the way of treatment, but of prophylaxis, of securing a free exit for the urine. Even that small degree of obstruction or hindrance which leads a person to habitually put a little extra strain upon the bladder in order to expel its contents, especially if it be allowed occasionally to become dilated, may gradually lead to dilatation of the ureters, and thus make an easy passage upward for inflammatory and decomposed urine if such should afterward be formed as a consequence of cystitis by retention. The washing of the bladder from the urethra may be done with a great variety of antiseptics and acids: nitric acid in the proportion of 1 per mille may be used to change the reaction of the urine. Carbolic acid should be carefully used, from the danger of its absorption in poisonous amounts. Boric acid is a safe and quite efficient antiseptic.

Washing from above, which is evidently that which alone can directly affect the renal pelvis, must be done with such drugs as can be safely given internally, so that carbolic acid cannot be of much use in this way. Salicylic acid loses a part, but not all, of its antiseptic properties in its passage through the blood and kidneys. Boric acid passes readily into the urine, alters its reaction, and seems to have some antiseptic action. It is unirritating in the stomach, and may be given in doses of 30 centigrammes or 5 grains to the extent of 1 or 2 grammes per diem. Benzoic acid and the benzoate of sodium, ammonium, or lithium have been found to be of value in cystitis, and as they can only reach the bladder by previously passing over the pelvic mucous membrane, they should also have a good effect here. It is obvious that constitutional symptoms arising from cystitis and its consequent nephritis may demand the most attention, and should evidently be of a decidedly supporting character, the details of which have no special reference to the disease, but to the general condition. Quinine may be called for as an antipyretic.

The question of removal of a kidney for pyo-nephrosis is less likely to arise in this form than the other, since from its causation it is much more likely to be bilateral; but if under any peculiarity of anatomical arrangement, such as greater dilatation of the one ureter, it should be found that one kidney was nearly healthy while the other was in a state of pyelitis, and purulent inflammation was giving rise to serious constitutional disturbance, such an operation might be undertaken.

The operation of nephrectomy, or removal of the kidney, may be required for various lesions, most of which include more or less pyelitis, and it may be considered once for all in this place. It has now been practised more than one hundred times. A table including 100 cases is given by R. P. Harris in the _American Journal of the Medical Sciences_ for July, 1882, and many have been recorded since.[21] It can, of course, hardly be expected that the removal of one of a pair of vital organs, under circumstances where it is often the case that the other is not {56} completely capable of carrying on the additional work, should present the same favorable array of statistics as ovariotomy; but it gives no small number of recoveries in cases which without it would undoubtedly have proved fatal, and it must be considered as having a legitimate and well-defined place among the major operations.

[Footnote 21: Weir, _New York Med. Journ._, Dec. 27, 1884.]

There are two distinct methods, besides, of course, all the minor differences of detail called for in the individual case. The kidney may be reached from the loin by an incision along the outer edge of the erector spinæ, as already described for nephrotomy. It is to be enucleated from its capsule of fat by the fingers, and a ligature or ligatures passed around the pedicle consisting of the veins, arteries, and ureter. The kidney is then cut off, possibly leaving a little renal substance if the pedicle be short and accessible with difficulty. The wound is left partly open for drainage. This method has the advantage of avoiding the peritoneum and the handling of other abdominal organs. Its disadvantages are, in some cases, the want of room, and when undertaken for the relief of floating kidney the difficulty of finding the organ, which is likely to be at the end of a pouch formed of peritoneum. In cases of calculous pyelitis, where it may be at the beginning of the operation uncertain whether merely an incision for the removal of a stone or a total removal of a kidney of normal size may be necessary, this line of approach presents decided advantages.

The other method is by abdominal incision or laparotomy, which is usually made through the linea alba, though in a number of cases the outer edge of the rectus abdominis on the side corresponding to the organ to be removed has been taken as the guide. The steps of the operation are similar to those of ovariotomy where the pedicle is tied and returned to the abdominal cavity. This operation may be one of choice, from the greater ease with which the pedicle can be reached and the possibility of increasing the length of the incision in case of necessity for the removal of a very large tumor. In one case a crucial incision was made. When the kidney to be removed is a wandering one, and especially when a kidney has become fixed in an anomalous position, this is by far the easiest, and sometimes the only practicable, method.

Antiseptic precautions are of course to be used.

Hydro-nephrosis.

Obstruction to the discharge of urine from the body naturally produces special disorders in the secreting and discharging organs. If the obstruction exist below the neck of the bladder, as in stricture of the urethra or enlarged prostate, then the bladder is the organ primarily affected, and it may become distended, sacculated, its muscular coat hypertrophied, its mucous membrane affected with catarrhal inflammation, and its contents changed from the normal by the addition of mucus, of pus, of bacteria, or a deposit of earthy phosphates from the ammoniacal reaction produced by decomposition of the urea.

The effects of distension of the bladder will sooner or later make themselves felt in the upper urinary passages, and will then give rise to the same dilatation of the ureters and the renal pelvis as occurs when the {57} obstruction is higher up. As regards the rapidity with which such changes progress, much depends upon the degree of obstruction as well as upon the amount of urine secreted. It probably, however, never takes place suddenly.

In a case which came under the observation of the writer a partial paralysis of the bladder, probably existing from infancy, had in the course of three or four years, during which large quantities of light urine were passed, given rise to dilatation of the ureters, slight dilatation of the pelvis of the kidneys, atrophy of the parenchyma, and hypertrophy of the left ventricle.

Obstructions in the course of the ureters may exist at their opening into the bladder, which may be contracted by chronic cystitis; at a point immediately above this from compression by morbid growths, especially of the uterus, one of the most common causes of hydro-nephrosis, or even from retroflexion of the uterus when pregnant; at any point in its course by a twisting or sharp angle, as in movable kidney, although this is a much rarer accident than might be supposed; or at the brim of the pelvis, where it may be bound down by old peritoneal adhesions, and at its junction with the renal pelvis, which may be formed in such a manner as to constitute a valve, so that the urine escapes slowly or with great difficulty; or where it may be blocked by a calculus or other deposit in the cavity of the pelvis.

Obstructions by a twist or angle or by a valvular opening may, it is obvious, be temporary or intermittent in their action, and probably some arrangement of this kind was present in the cases which have been reported of relief of hydro-nephrosis by gentle massage of the abdomen.

Above the point of obstruction the ureter and pelvis are found dilated and the walls somewhat thinned. The kidney and its pelvis form a more or less irregular rounded pouch, with the tense cylindrical tube of the ureter attached to it below. The kidney itself becomes in various degrees atrophied. In some cases it retains nearly all its secreting structure, and is merely spread out upon the surface of the sac; in others, while the pelvis is but little dilated, the true kidney substance atrophies almost completely, and becomes a mere shell enclosing a cavity continuous with the pelvis and broken up by fibrous septa into subordinate cavities representing the original calices. A partial hydro-nephrosis is sometimes observed affecting only the calices.

Whether the one or the other of these conditions shall result depends, as has already been remarked, upon the completeness and suddenness of the obstruction. If the ureter of a rabbit is ligatured, the second condition--that is, atrophy of the kidney with but little dilatation--is observed. The pressure of urine soon puts a stop to further secretion, and there is no time for a slow and gradual dilatation of the pelvis and ureter. When, as is much more frequently the case in the human subject, the obstruction is more gradual or incomplete, the back pressure is for a long time insufficient to completely stop the passage of fluid through the renal capillaries, so that the pelvis and ureter, though allowing their contents to pass out only under a considerable vis-a-tergo, have time to accommodate themselves to the change, and dilate gradually, attaining sometimes enormous dimensions. The size of a hydro-nephrotic sac varies greatly: 60 liters of contents is certainly a very extreme case.

{58} The sac is usually white and glistening, thinner at some places than at others, and lined with a smooth, pale, and atrophied mucous membrane. The muscular layer has degenerated, and perhaps partly disappeared. The liquid contained in the sac, supposing no inflammatory products to have been mingled therewith, is at first nearly identical with urine, and always contains urea. Afterward its character changes from the absorption of the urinary salts and the secretion of mucus. The contents may be dark-colored from hemorrhage or somewhat gelatinous. At a later period again they become serous and may contain cholesterin.

The description just given, as well as that of the symptoms, applies to simple hydro-nephrosis. When the sac has become inflamed we have the very common combination with pyelitis, and the affection is called pyo-nephrosis. The progress of a case of hydro-nephrosis may be in rare cases to recovery by spontaneous re-establishment of the permeability of the ureter. In others it persists a long time without giving rise to trouble. If inflammation supervene, it is obvious that fever, either simply irritative or of pyæmic character, may be a severe or even a fatal concomitant, or that in this condition a perforation may take place. When the tumor is large it may from its bulk alone produce disturbance of the circulation, dyspnoea, palpitation, and oedema of the lower limbs.

As regards the influence of this lesion on the secretion of urine, everything must depend on the amount of renal atrophy. A single kidney may undoubtedly be completely atrophied by this as by any other lesion without producing serious symptoms, since, as has been repeatedly demonstrated, the other is sufficient to carry on the work under ordinary circumstances; but if, as very frequently happens, both kidneys are involved, there must come a time when the renal substance no longer suffices, and the usual results of suppression of urine follow. It is possible, however, for extensive changes to take place in both kidneys before symptoms of insufficient secretion arise.

Hydro-nephrosis, in the entire absence of inflammatory symptoms and in the presence of conditions likely to cause it known to exist in the lower urinary passages, may be rather suspected than diagnosticated until the appearance of a tumor. Some dull pain in the loins without irradiations in any direction may exist, but so common a symptom can have but little weight in diagnosis. For an early recognition of swelling in suspected cases where nothing can be felt anteriorly, it has been recommended that the patient be placed upon the hands and knees, when the flank upon the affected side, instead of falling slightly forward and leaving a shallow depression outside of the erector spinæ, will remain full or protuberant. When an enlargement evidently connected with the kidney makes its appearance after obstruction to the passage of urine is known to exist, the diagnosis may often be very simple; but if the tumor be the first phenomenon observed, as may easily happen when the obstruction is situated high up or even at the commencement of the ureter, it may require to be distinguished from several other kinds of tumor occupying the lumbar region, or, since hydro-nephrosis of a movable or misplaced kidney sometimes takes place, from tumors of the abdomen in general. From solid malignant tumors of the kidney the feeling of comparative elasticity and fluctuation will in most cases distinguish it, though an encephaloid kidney may be so soft as to render the second of these points of {59} comparatively little value. Absence of hæmaturia and of the cancerous cachexia, though not conclusive, would have much weight.

A hydatid cyst might counterfeit a hydro-nephrosis, but instances of this affection having its primary seat in the kidney are of extreme rarity. An ordinary cystic kidney is most likely to be connected with chronic diffuse interstitial nephritis, which will have made itself manifest by the usual symptoms, and is moreover unlikely to attain the dimensions of a large or even moderate hydro-nephrosis. In a thin person the ureter might, if felt dilated through the abdominal walls, clear up the diagnosis. Extreme cases of cystic kidney with comparatively little nephritis may, however, present great similarity and cause difficulty in diagnosis.

From most other tumors of the abdominal cavity those of the kidney present the important distinction that they are situated behind the peritoneum, and consequently behind the intestines, so that the surface of a renal tumor is likely to be crossed by a more or less extensive area of percussion resonance, representing usually the large intestine. This criterion is, however, not absolute, since a renal tumor may push the colon completely to one side, or, on the other hand, tumors not connected with the kidney may allow the intestine to come between themselves and the abdominal wall.

An ovarian cyst is more manifestly attached to the pelvis, and its history will disclose the fact of its having arisen from below. A gravid uterus should also, when small, be manifestly connected with the pelvis, and when larger be accompanied by the usual symptoms of pregnancy. The same may be said of extra-uterine pregnancy, which may be mentioned as among the conditions possibly giving rise to difficulties in diagnosis.

The most efficient aid to diagnosis, when it is of importance that such should be accurately made, is the aspirator-needle, which will procure a fluid more or less characteristic of the tumor into which it is thrust. In hydro-nephrosis the contents are a somewhat dilute urine, with perhaps mucus; in a solid tumor, blood, with pieces of tissue recognizable by the microscope; in a cystic tumor, fluid which is perhaps somewhat urinous, but much more changed than in simple hydro-nephrosis, and perhaps containing solid-looking bodies with concentric and radiating striation; in hydatid cysts, hooks and fragments of scolices; in ovarian cysts, the various contents, fluid and semi-fluid, but not urinous, generally found therein.

With all these means, however, cases will occasionally arise in which expert diagnosticians may be lead astray, and the difficulties become considerably greater when the dilated pelvis is that of a displaced or unusually-placed kidney. Such cases have been subjected to operation under the impression that an ovarian cyst was present.

The medical TREATMENT of hydro-nephrosis is nil. In many cases nothing is demanded by the immediate necessities of the case, and atrophy, if it be probable that only one kidney is involved, may be allowed to take place without interference. It is possible that in some instances manipulation of the tumor might relieve the obstruction and allow the tumor to subside when a slight twist or angle in the ureter is the cause. The fact of an occasional spontaneous subsidence of such a tumor shows that something of this kind has taken place.

{60} The surgical treatment of affections of the lower urinary passages, as both a prophylactic and therapeutic measure, has already been spoken of under the head of Pyelitis. It would, however, be only in a minority of cases of pure hydro-nephrosis that the seat of obstruction could be efficiently reached by surgery.

Puncture and aspiration of the sac may very properly be resorted to, and may prove of value--in the first place, as a more or less temporary relief; and secondly, as a means of re-establishing the flow through the natural passages by the relief of pressure and consequent opening of the valvular fold, which has occasionally been observed at the junction of the ureter with the pelvis.

In a case where the obstruction is known to be irremediable, and where the hydro-nephrosis, if existing only on one side, is likely to increase, it is not desirable to make the puncture too early or to repeat it too frequently, since by allowing the pressure to increase the atrophy of the kidney will be more rapidly accomplished, and the need of frequently emptying the sac will not arise so often in the future. On the other hand, if there is a prospect of a restoration, if both kidneys are affected, or if the kidney not involved in the hydro-nephrosis is known to be seriously impaired in function, and it is desirable to preserve the secreting structure as long as possible, the punctures should be so arranged as to keep the pressure at its minimum. This must, however, be regarded as a temporary expedient. The puncture may be made either from the back or front, though in most cases the latter position, if the puncture be made with a small clean needle, would be the more convenient, and equally safe notwithstanding its traversing the peritoneum.

A hydro-nephrosis may be treated either by removal or by drainage. Both of these methods have been resorted to, and are to be employed according to the circumstances of the individual case. A pyo-nephrosis naturally demands interference more peremptorily and more promptly than a simple hydro-nephrosis, because it exposes the patient to the dangers not only of its pressure and of its tendency to destruction of the renal substance, but to those more urgent ones of purulent infection or of perforation and perinephritic abscess. Removal is to be undertaken by the ordinary rules of laparotomy. Drainage has been arranged in cases where removal was impossible or unadvisable by stitching the edges of an opened sac to the external wound. It is possible that the choice between the two operations can be made only after the primary incisions and explorations have advanced sufficiently to enable the extent of adhesions and the amount of healthy renal substance to be approximately determined.

Staples of Dubuque states, on the basis of 71 cases collected by him, that "63 per cent. of patients operated on are cured by lumbar nephrectomy, 68 per cent. by open methods in general, and up to date 100 per cent. by either lumbar incision and drainage or the creation of a fistula."

Malignant Growths.

As pathological rarities only, and having but little clinical interest, may be mentioned, as occurring in the kidneys, fibroma, lipoma, {61} myxoma, anginoma, and adenoma. Malignant growths originating in or involving the kidneys, sarcoma or carcinoma, are, however, more frequent and more important.

Sarcoma, primitive or secondary, of the kidney is a somewhat rare occurrence, but most frequent in children. The whole kidney may be transformed into a mass occupying its place and somewhat resembling it in form, but many times exceeding it in bulk and weight. Such a tumor may largely distend the abdominal cavity and compress its contents. Upon section we often find a substance varying greatly in consistence, from almost fibrous hardness to cavities filled with grumous material broken down by fatty degeneration and often colored by hemorrhage. In the interior may be found remains of the pyramids and cortical substance occupying their usual relative positions, but as it were distended, these portions being surrounded by a much thicker layer of purely abnormal neoplasm, probably connected with the capsule and its surrounding fat. In other cases all traces of normal form and structure may have disappeared. The microscopic structure of such a growth presents no peculiarity except so far as the arrangement of cells in the normal gland may be followed to a certain extent in the less-altered portions of the tumor. Besides this total destruction of the kidney, it is not uncommon to find nodules involving a part of one or both the organs, and more or less distinctly marked off from the healthy portion.

The origin of sarcomata involving the kidneys may be the subperitoneal cellular tissue or the neighboring organs. As a primary disease sarcoma of the kidneys is very rare.

True cancer or carcinoma of the kidney is not a common disease, and is said to have been found 12 times in 447 cases of cancer of various organs. It may be primary or secondary, and a description of the gross appearances would be essentially the same as that of the sarcoma. The tumor does not, however, usually attain so large a size, and the amount of degeneration of neighboring organs and of ulceration is greater. Calculi are often found in cancerous kidneys.

The SYMPTOMS produced by either sarcoma or carcinoma may be none at all for a time. Dull pains in the loins or referred to the hypochondrium--which, however, from their indefiniteness can have but little diagnostic importance--are among the early phenomena. Pains like nephritic colic may appear. The urine usually shows little of importance. There may be sympathetic disturbance of micturition, but unless hemorrhage occurs there is not likely to be anything in the urine discoverable by the microscope to fix the nature of the trouble. Fragments of cancer-structure in the very rare cases in which they are said to have been found would of course be conclusive, but evidence based on the alleged discovery of cancer-cells in the urine must be received with the utmost caution, recollecting the great variety of shapes and sizes assumed by the epithelium of the urinary passages. Hæmaturia is a symptom occurring in only a portion of the cases, its appearance in a given case evidently depending on the way in which the tumor invades the kidney and increases in size. If growing in such a way as to compress the ureter at an early stage before any erosion of the mucous membrane has taken place, blood, even if set free in the pelvis, cannot reach the bladder. If hæmaturia is present before any tumor can be felt, it has {62} only a subordinate value, but if occurring after the discovery of such a tumor, the combination is of the highest significance. At a later period all the symptoms of compression of other abdominal viscera arise--anorexia, vomiting, jaundice, oedema, ascites, emaciation, and death.

When a tumor has become evident, it is to be diagnosticated from cystic disease and from hydro-nephrosis, with which it agrees in position and possibly in form. From the former of these its hardness and rapid growth, the invasion of other organs, and the cachexia will serve to distinguish it. Hæmaturia is not present in cystic disease. From hydro-nephrosis or pyo-nephrosis the diagnosis has already been stated. On the right side it might not in every case be easy to distinguish a morbid growth of the kidney from one affecting the liver, and a similar difficulty might arise on the other side with the spleen. The diagnosis is to be made by a careful location of the tumor by palpation and percussion and the absence of symptoms likely to occur in connection with affections of the organs named. In children psoas abscess and degeneration of the lumbar lymphatic glands should also be considered.

A sarcoma of the kidney has been mistaken and punctured for an empyema. A sarcoma behind the kidney, pushing it forward, is very difficult to distinguish from a similar growth affecting the organ itself, especially as it is likely to give rise to signs of renal irritation discoverable by the microscope. A slight pyelitis, distinguished by pus and the absence of any cellular elements to indicate an origin at a lower point, has been observed in such a case.

The results of exploratory puncture have been before alluded to. If a piece can be brought away large enough to be examined microscopically, it may settle the diagnosis, not only as to a malignant growth, but also as to its kind.