Behemoth wrote:jguru wrote:jguru wrote:Is your cousin male or female? How old?
@Behemoth, I asked this not out of jest, but because it is important.
UTIs present differently in men than in women. The female urethra is only 4cm while the male one is 20cm. Age is also an important risk factor.
I'm assuming your cousin is a man. Adult.
-Has he ever been catheterised? A rubber pipe passed through to help in voiding urine?
-Is he of an age where the prostate could be enlarged? >50yrs.
-Kidney stones? Trauma between the legs? STIs?
The major cause of recurrent or complicate UTIs in adult men is obstruction. Either a stricture, a large prostrate, or as seen from your imaging tests, vesicoureteric reflux due to obstruction at the point where the ureter enters the bladder.
Surgery is warranted for these conditions. The urologist/urosurgeon (+ nephrologist, +radiologist) will make this decision after ultrasound and/or cystoscopy and deteriorating renal function.
Make haste. His kidneys are at risk.
@jguru, Thanks. He is a male, 30 yrs.
To ua Qs, As in
blue;
-Has he ever been catheterised? A rubber pipe passed through to help in voiding urine?
Well at the radiologist, he once told me that a pipe was passed thru the penis to to suck urine before a some photos were taken. At this point the radiologis showed him some traces of tissues sucked from the bladder in which the doc told him these were the healing remnants of the infection. It was at thi s point that the photos revealed a darkish spot at the junction between the urethra & bladder. - Is he of an age where the prostate could be enlarged? >50yrs.
he is 30 yrs-Kidney stones? Trauma between the legs? STIs?
I may not be sure coz when the condition began, he was staying in college.
The test with the catheter is called a voiding (micturating) cystourethrogram. Fill the bladder with dye, ask to pee, observe for reflux.
He probably has a blockage at the entry of the urethra into the bladder. An infection he might have had in the past might have caused this; and the infections he is having now are due to bacteria forming at that junction. Urine stays too long in his bladder, providing an essential culture medium for bacteria. The obstruction may also be causing pooling of urine in his ureters and the kidneys. Hydro-ureters and hydro-nephrosis are a major cause of kidney failure. Trust me, you DO NOT want to have a renal patient in your house. It will affect your life for the foreseeable future.
He will need another comprehensive cystoscopy, renal ultrasound and VCUG done by an experienced radiologist at a proper medical center. And you need to explain your concerns to your urologist. @chepkel, give her the doctors' list.
Set out to correct the world's wrongs and you will most certainly wind up adding to them.