Floating Kidney

Floating Kidney 

wandering kidney, downward displaced kidney, a disease of the kidney manifested by its abnormal mobility. The kidney does not have any ligaments, and it is secured only by a fatty capsule, fascia, and blood vessels (intra-abdominal pressure also helps to fix the kidney). Therefore, a floating kidney can develop as a result of increased physical exertion, trauma, decrease in perirenal fat (from general exhaustion), or decreased intra-abdominal pressure caused by relaxation of the anterior abdominal wall (for example, in women after repeated childbirths). A floating kidney causes dull pain in the loin (or renal colic), sensation of epigastric pressure, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, and sensation of a foreign body in the hypochon-drium. A floating kidney can sometimes be asymptomatic. If it is displaced too far downward (nephroptosis), the outflow of urine may be impaired because of kinking of the ureter, and the renal pelvis may become dilated and inflamed (pyelitis). The pressure of urine may compress the renal blood vessels, resulting in some cases in arterial hypertension. Treatment includes wearing a kidney binder, increased food intake, gymnastics, and sometimes surgical intervention. Prevention consists of exercise therapy to strengthen the muscles of the prelum abdominale.

REFERENCES

Pytel’, A. Ia., and N. A. Lopatkin. “Nefroptoz i arteriarnaia giper-toniia.” Urologiia i nefrologiia, 1965, no. 1.
Smirnov, A. V. “Anomalii pochek i mochetochnikov.” In Mnogotomnoe rukovodstvo po khirurgii, vol. 9. Edited by B. V. Petrovskii. Moscow, 1959.