Rôle of Anomalies of Kidney and Ureter in Causation of Surgical Conditions

Anomalies in the upper urinary tract are more commonly observed than in any other system of the body.1In olden times anomalies were rarely discovered even post mortem, owing to the difficulty of obtaining material for anatomic dissection and to the lack of proper methods of investigation and diagnosis, as a result of which these malformations were long considered as anatomic curiosities.2Since Albarran's systematization of the use of cystoscopy and catheterization of the ureters,3and the discovery of pyelography,4and more recently the introduction of intravenous urography,5it has been possible to diagnose innumerable malformations and pathologic conditions of the kidney that were never before suspected. So amazing is the rôle of the vast number of anomalies of the urinary tract in the etiology of diseases and surgical conditions, as recognized in this urographic era, that it can safely be said that fully 40 per cent