The non-functioning kidney in renal tuberculosis.

The authors have found a non-functioning kidney in 117 patients, constituting more than 24 per cent of 487 patients with bacteriologically and/or histologically confirmed renal tuberculosis, treated and followed up in the last ten years. In 2/3 of the patients with non-functioning kidney and renal tuberculosis, the conditions of non-functioning had been already present from the very beginning, at the time when renal tuberculosis was established. In the remaining 1/3 of the patients, one of the kidneys had ceased to function in the course of treatment. The authors found that the main causes for the failure of the kidney function in renal tuberculosis are strictures of the draining urinary pathways. Emphasis is laid upon the necessity of a careful observation of the patients with renal tuberculosis in the course of drug treatment in view of a timely detection and treatment ofthe strictures in the draining urinary pathways.