Outcome of conservative and minimally invasive management in emphysematous pyelonephritis

Developing countries.

Emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) is a urologic emergency characterized by acute necrotizing infection with the presence of gas in the kidney, perinephric space, and/or urinary collecting system.

It is a retrospective study of inpatients at the Department of Urology, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, which includes twenty patients diagnosed as EPN between September of 2018 and May of 2020.

Patients were classified as per computed tomography (CT) severity grading proposed by Huang and Tseng. In our study, medical management with antibiotics was effective in 10% of patients. Twenty percent of patients were treated with medical management and internal ureteral stenting. Fifty percent of the patients were treated with medical management and percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN). Ten percent needed PCN drainage in addition to Double J (DJ) stenting. Ten percent needed percutaneous drainage of perinephric abscess along with PCN. Ten percent of patients were treated with open drainage in addition to DJ stenting and percutaneous drainage of perinephric collection as they failed to respond to minimally invasive intervention alone, with repeat ultrasonography showing persistent collection. There was no mortality in the group.

EPN patients are mostly moribund with multiple comorbidities. It is vital to comprehend the management with a prompt CT imaging. Proactive hemodynamic stabilization, antimicrobial therapy, complementing it with DJ stenting and/or PCN in cases not responding to antibiotics alone, can treat most of the patients with this pathology.