Spontaneous Rupture of the Kidney as a Complication of Diabetes Mellitus / 대한비뇨기과학회지

ABSTRACT

We report a case of spontaneous renal rupture in a 63 year-old woman as a complication of diabetes mellitus. She experienced a sudden onset of severe pain and bulging mass on the left flank. She had been suffered from diabetes mellitus for 30 years without any specific treatment, and she had no history of specific associated diseases or factors such as trauma, stone, tumor, hydronephrosis or vascular lesion of the kidney. Grossly this ruptured kidney showed a characteristic necrosis and infarcted lesions extended from papilla to cortex of the upper pole kidney and surrounding tissues of the kidney showed interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy and mononuclear cell infiltration. Microscopically the atherosclerotic medium-sized blood vessels and small vessels around the infarcted lesion also showed hyaline sclerosis. This pathologically defined spontaneous renal rupture is thought to be caused by focal renal infarction due to atherosclerosis or fat emboli-associated renovascular occlusion in diabetic patient. This report emphasizes the importance of diabetic nephropathy as a new cause of the spontaneous renal rupture in patients of diabetes mellitus.