The Impact of Renal Impairment on the Management of Patients with Lower Urinary Tract Obstruction

Abstract

One hundred patients with lower urinary tract obstruction (LUTO) seen over a 10-month period were prospectively studied. Nineteen (19%) had an elevated serum creatinine (>125 μmol/l); 13% had benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH); 4% had urethral strictures; and two had congenital anomalies. Though urethral strictures are more common than BPH they cause less renal impairment, probably because the patients are younger and also because a urinary fistula may form proximal to the stricture when the intravesical pressure rises very high.

Eighty per cent of the patients with renal impairment had a urinary tract infection (UTI), and in these the reduction in serum creatinine following relief of obstruction was slow and erratic. In three patients who did not have UTI the serum creatinine dropped steadily at a rate which varied from 6.8–845 μmol/l/week following continuous bladder drainage and appropriate supportive management. All patients with elevated serum creatinine had delayed surgery and required prolonged preoperative hospitalization, with a resultant sharp increase in the cost of their treatment.