About Renal Duplication

Renal Duplication, together with horseshoe kidney and medullary sponge kidney, are the common abnormal development of kidney and just as its name implies, Renal Duplication means there are two kidneys which usually merge as a whole.

For Renal Duplication, it can be unilateral or bilateral, but mostly it appears in one side. In normal cases, we have no ureter which is connected with bladder, but for people with Renal Duplication, they may have two ureters. And if both these two ureters are connected with bladder, no symptoms will be caused, but if one ureter unfortunately leads to other parts like vulvar vestibule, not bladder, some abnormal symptoms will appear like enuresis.

On the basis of clinical investigation, about 60% Renal Duplication patients experience no symptoms and in such a case, they need no treatments. However, in some cases, Renal Duplication is always accompanied with Kidney Stone, Tuberculosis, Tumor, Hydronephrosis and Nephropyelitis. In such a case, chronic kidney damages are caused easily, so ,medical treatment should be given as earlier as possible to prevent terrible conditions.

In clinic, the most commonly used diagnosis methods go as follow:

1. Vein urological imaging: This help to diagnose well-behaved Renal Duplication, but it is not suitable if only one of the kidney in Renal Duplication work well.

2. B Ultrasound: It shows great effects in imaging well-behaved Renal Duplication, but not so good in case of Renal Duplication with two ureters and hydronephrosis. Also, if we adopt B Ultrasound as the diagnosis method, we need to distinguish Renal Duplication from cyst growing in upper pole of kidney and abnormal double pelvis.

3. CT Scan: Apart from showing a clear image about Renal Duplication, CT scan also help to confirm the ectopic open of ureter.

Renal Duplication not definitely need medical treatment, but once it causes kidney damages, treatment should be given as quickly as possible to avoid worse kidney condition.