They say, ‘When it rains, it pours!’ A similar situation happened when life threw challenges at a young baby boy whose parents visited NU Hospitals, at the Padmanabhanagar branch.
As if one kidney illness wasn’t enough to drain a patient and their family physically and mentally, here is a patient’s case with two kidney ailments.
We present a case study of a young boy who suffered and faced two different kidney diseases which was too much to handle for his family.
A young child suffering from a kidney disease called vesicoureteric reflux had repeated urinary infections in childhood from the age of 3 months.
Vesicoureteric reflux is a commonly occurring condition wherein there is backflow of urine from the urinary bladder into the kidneys. This could be asymptomatic, or children with urinary tract infections can present such signs and could have a family history.
He had already developed scarring on one kidney. To prevent further scarring of the kidneys, he was taken up for ureteric reimplantation surgery at the age of 7 months after counseling the parents. This procedure prevents the problem of backflow of the urine to the kidney.
Following this treatment, the boy was meticulously followed up. He recovered well and did not have further episodes of infection or scarring of the kidney.
Years later, he showed new symptoms of protein leak in the urine along with blood and developed high blood pressure (hypertension).
After counseling the parents regarding the risks of kidney biopsy [a procedure in which a small piece of kidney tissue is obtained after inserting a needle into the kidney that is ultrasound-guided at the patient's bedside] of a single functioning kidney, it was conducted.
When kidney biopsy was done, it revealed infection-related inflammation of the kidney filter (glomeruli) and he was appropriately treated.
Following the treatment, the patient is doing very well, with no blood and protein leak in urine, and normal kidney function. Presently, after completing college education, he got himself a decent job.
