Double cancers of the kidney and ureter complicated with emphysematous pyelonephritis within the parenchyma of the renal tumour

Emphysematous pyelonephritis after urinary diversion by percutaneous nephrostomy in patient with advanced cervical cancer: A case report

Emphysematous pyelonephritis is a severe kidney infection that is common in women and patients with diabetes mellitus, but rare in cancer patients. A 64-year-old patient with advanced uterine cervical cancer developed emphysematous pyelonephritis after urine diversion by percutaneous nephrostomy of the left kidney, which is a possible approach to this infection. Antibiotic therapy was started to achieve clinical improvement and preserve renal function, and radical nephrectomy was not an option due to the functional exclusion of the contralateral kidney. The patient progressed with worsening renal function; thus, she started outpatient hemodialysis, with improvement of the uremic encephalopathy. She died 7.7 months after admission, 1 month after treatment for emphysematous pyelonephritis. Treatment should be adjusted to the patients' needs, including maintenance of hemodialysis to improve symptoms. Further investigation is needed to identify possible causes and prevent emphysematous pyelonephritis in cancer patients.

Emphysematous pyelonephritis

OBJECTIVE

The mortality rate among patients with emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) is high and the best therapy has long been debated.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Between January 1993 and December 2004, 26 patients diagnosed with EPN were treated at our hospital. Historical, demographic and laboratory data were obtained from medical records for analysis.

RESULTS

The mean age of the patients was 58.7+/-12.7 years. All patients had diabetes, and women outnumbered men (23:3). The clinical findings were non-specific. A plain abdominal X-ray was diagnostic in only 9/26 patients (36%), ultrasonography was accurate in 13 (50%) and CT was diagnostic in all cases. Eighteen patients survived, including all five treated with open drainage and three out of four treated with percutaneous drainage (although one of these later required nephrectomy), and eight died. Diabetic ketoacidosis or non-ketotic hyperosmolar syndrome, obesity and smoking were significant predictors of death.

CONCLUSIONS

Early diagnosis by means of CT and CT-guided percutaneous drainage (which is better than ultrasonography-guided drainage) or open drainage, along with antibiotic treatment, may be a reasonable alternative to nephrectomy for this high morbidity condition.

[Renal synchronous tumor: association of renal adenocarcinoma and transitional tumor of renal pelvis, in the same kidney, an exceptional discovery]

The renal cell tumour supposes 1% of the adult's tumors, while the transitional carcinoma has an incidence of 7%. The simultaneous appearance of a carcinoma of renal cells, and a transitional tumour of pelvis in the same kidney, they suppose an exceptional fact not existing but of 30 cases published in the world, presenting an approximate incidence of 0.14% of the pathology renal tumoral. We present a new case of this unusual association that supposes the 4 case indexed in the literature in Spanish.

Renal cell carcinoma complicated by emphysematous pyelonephritis in a non-diabetic patient with renal failure

A 72-year-old non-diabetic uremic woman underwent right nephrectomy for urolithiasis at the age of 50. Because pyuria, fever, chilliness and left flank pain developed during preparing for arteriovenous fistula, she was admitted to National Cheng Kung University Hospital. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) complicated with emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) was diagnosed and immediately treated with antibiotics and CT-guided percutaneous catheter drainage. Cultures of pus and blood yielded Escherichia coli. She received left radical nephrectomy later for the control of persistent sepsis and removal of left renal tumor. The pathology of the tumor was composed of a glandular arrangement of granular cells with the occasional atypism, and renal parenchyma had been totally replaced by RCC. The non-tumor part of the kidney showed chronic pyelonephritis. Five months later, multiple metastases developed. We reported this first uremic case with EPN and RCC, but without diabetes mellitus and urinary tract obstruction. The gas formation may be due to large RCC, which caused impaired tissue perfusion and E. coli infection.