Genitourinary complications of inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease affects the genitourinary tract not infrequently, either by way of direct extension of the gastrointestinal inflammatory process or through metabolic interrelationships between the two organ systems. The abnormalities that most frequently result include retroperitoneal abscess, ureteral obstruction, cystitis, enterovesical fistula, and urolithiasis. Some of these may be sufficiently symptomatic to draw attention to their presence, even, on occasion, overshadowing or preceding gastrointestinal disease symptoms. Other urinary lesions are clinically silent and require periodic uroradiologic evaluation for purposes of discovery.