Radio-isotopic predictive recovery of radiologically non functioning obstructed kidney

ABSTRACT

Radio-isotopic renal scanning was performed in 65 patients with radiological non-functioning obstructed kidneys. The other kidney was normal in 52 patients and showed impaired function in 13 patients. According to renal uptake of the 99m Tc-DMSA, the patients were classified into 2 groups Group I [40 patients] showed no uptake and group II [25 patients] showed minimal uptake of less than 15%. Drainage of the obstructed kidney was done despite the uptake of the radio-isotope and the kidney was followed for a period of 3 - 10 months by radionuclide studies using 99m Tc-DMSA alone or combined with 99m Tc-DTPA. In group I, no functional recovery was detected up to 6 months. However, in group II, 19 cases out of 25 [76%] showed improvement of kidney function with mean tubular improvement of 9.5%. In the remaining 6 patients [24%], 3 patient showed no improvement and 3 patients showed deterioration of function. Kidneys with preoperative uptake of more than 10% showed improvement of 26.3% but in those with uptake of less than 10% no recovery was found and even deterioration of function could occur