Unilateral medullary sponge kidney: cause of persistent bacteriuria

A patient with twenty years of persistent bacteriuria secondary to unilateral medullary sponge kidney, and in whom no antibiotic would sterilize the urine, was cured of her infection by nephrectomy in the presence of contralateral hydronephrosis. A review of the literature shows 23 cases of unilateral medullary sponge kidney in which nephrectomy or partial nephrectomy was apparently equally successful, although no bacteriologic follow-up data are given.