Women’s health spotlight: The ectopic kidney
YOUR first awareness that you have it may be through an abdominal ultrasound, where it will be listed as an ectopic kidney, crossed renal ectopia or pelvic kidney. This condition is simply when one kidney is located below, above, or on the opposite side of the kidney’s normal position in the urinary tract.
Should a woman with this condition be worried? Here is some insight from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Normal placement
The two kidneys are usually located near the middle of your back, just below your rib cage, on either side of your spine. An ectopic kidney usually doesn’t cause any symptoms or health problems, and many people never find out that they have the condition. If an ectopic kidney is discovered, it is usually found during a foetal ultrasound or during medical tests done to check for a urinary tract infection (UTI) or to find the cause of abdominal pain. Rarely does a person have two ectopic kidneys.
How it develops
In the womb, a foetus’s kidneys first develop as small buds in the lower abdomen inside the pelvis. During the first eight weeks of growth, the foetus’s kidneys slowly move from the pelvis to their normal position in the back near the rib cage. When an ectopic kidney occurs during growth, the kidney either stays in the pelvis near the bladder, stops moving up too early and stays in the lower abdomen, moves too high up in the abdomen, or crosses over the centre of the body and often grows into, or joins, the other kidney, with both kidneys on the same side of the body. When the kidney stays in the pelvis, it is called a pelvic kidney. If the kidney crosses to the other side of the body, it is called crossed renal ectopia.
Causes
Researchers don’t know exactly what causes most birth defects, including ectopic kidney.
How common is it?
Some studies suggest about one in 1,000 people has an ectopic kidney.
Symptoms
Most people with an ectopic kidney have no symptoms. If complications occur, however, symptoms may include pain in your abdomen or back, urinary frequency or urgency, or burning during urination, fever, haematuria, or blood in the urine, a lump or mass in the abdomen and high blood pressure.
What health problems can it cause?
An ectopic kidney usually doesn’t cause health problems or complications, and may work normally. Most people are born with two kidneys, so if your ectopic kidney doesn’t work at all, your other kidney may be able to do the work both kidneys would have done. People who have an ectopic kidney are more likely to have vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) — a condition in which urine flows backward from the bladder to one or both ureters, and sometimes to the kidneys. The abnormal placement of the ectopic kidney and potential problems with slow or blocked urine flow can be associated with other problems, including UTIs and kidney stones.
Treatment options
Your doctor may not need to treat your ectopic kidney if it isn’t causing symptoms or damage to your body or kidney. If tests show that you have a blockage or other potential complication in the urinary tract, the doctor may suggest further follow-up or surgery to correct the abnormality.
