Injuries of the Ureter and Their Management

Wounds of the ureter alone are rarely encountered, either in civil or in military practice. In a survey of the collected cases of wounds of the urogenital tract from the records of the American Expeditionary Forces (World War I) Young¹found only 4 cases of injury to the ureter alone. A survey of the records from our clinic revealed 25 cases of ureteral injury, in each of which it was unilateral. The etiologic classification of the series is given in table 1. The management of these injuries depends on the cause of the injury and on the time that has elapsed since it was sustained. If during a surgical operation the ureter is injured, immediate repair is indicated. The ends of a completely divided ureter may be united over a T tube or over a ureteral catheter passed upward to the renal pelvis and downward into the bladder. The