Nephrectomy in unilateral chronic pyelonephritis. A long-term follow-up study.

In order to study the effectiveness of unilateral nephrectomy as a treatment for chronic unilateral pyelonephritis, 15 consecutive patients who had undergone this operation were followed up. The patients had been operated on 8.9 years (mean) earlier. All of the 15 patients had had recurrent urinary tract infections prior to the operation, 11 of them had had pyelonephritis for between 1 and 19 (mean 6.7) years. One patient only had had a verified episode of urinary tract infection during the follow-up period. All 15 patients were hypertensive prior to the operation. At the time of follow-up, 7 patients were normotensive without drugs, and 2 were normotensive with a reduced dosage of antihypertensives. The mean systolic blood pressure went down from 180 to 150 mm Hg, and the mean diastolic pressure from 109 to 88 mm Hg. This operation can thus be recommended in selected cases of unilateral chronic pyelonephritis with hypertension.