Nephroptosis

Nephroptosis

Nephroptosis is a medical condition characterized by the abnormal movement of the kidney by more than two vertebral bodies or 5 cm when the patient changes from the supine to the erect position. It is also known as hypermobile or floating kidney. The specific mechanism of nephroptosis symptoms is unclear, but it is suggested that multiple factors, including intermittent ureteric obstruction, renal ischaemia, and lack of supportive perirenal fat and fascial support, can cause the downward translocation of the kidney.From: Textbook of Laparoscopic Urology [2019], Nephroptosis: is body mass index (BMI) the key? [2018]

Conclusion

View Chapter

Purchase Book

Published in Lawrie Reznek, The Nature of Disease, 1987

Lawrie Reznek

Some putative diseases are not diseases because the nature of the condition is not as was supposed. For example, nephroptosis or floating kidney does not exist because there is no harmful condition with a nature consisting of a mobile kidney. The conditions mistaken as instances of floating kidney may do the individual harm - cases of renal colic were described as instances of floating kidney, and renal colic is harmful. But floating kidney does not exist because these conditions do not have the postulated nature of a mobile kidney. There is another more important reason why nephroptosis does not exist, and that is because such conditions do not constitute a natural kind.

Nephroptosis: is body mass index (BMI) the key?

View Article

Journal Information

Published in Scandinavian Journal of Urology, 2018

David G. Bratt, Ata Jaffer, Lizzie Chandra, Chirag Patel, Chandra S. Biyani

Nephroptosis, also known as a floating kidney, is a rare condition in which the kidney descends by more than two vertebral bodies (or >5 cm) during a position change from supine to upright [1]. The significance of this finding, as well as its surgical management, has been an area of much debate. We discuss the case of a slim 30-year-old female patient who had a very successful outcome following the diagnosis and management of this condition: and suggest the theory that nephroptosis should be suspected in the low BMI female patient with unexplained intermittent loin pain.

Explore chapters and articles related to this topic

Conclusion

Nephroptosis: is body mass index (BMI) the key?