[Fornix rupture. A contribution to differential acute abdomen diagnosis]

The diffuse retroperitoneal extravasation of urine most often secondary to an ureteric calculus may present as a surgical emergency with localized or general abdominal symptoms. As the clinical signs are intriguing, history and a blurred psoas shadow on the plain film of the abdomen are the best guides to the right diagnosis definitely confirmed by an intravenous urography. Management usually is conservative and the recovery most often uneventful.