I write about health and wellness, but I’m a urologist you know! So let me tell you a bit about PUJ obstruction because many of you would never have heard of this medical condition.

PUJ stands for pelviureteric junction. It’s where the drainage part of the kidney joins the downpipe called the ureter which connects it with the bladder. When a blockage occurs here, it leads to inadequate drainage of urine out of the kidney. What does that cause? BACK/FLANK PAIN! The pain is most prominent after fluid loading such as after drinking alcohol and kidney excretes more urine. Other sequelae include infection, stone formation and even chronic kidney damage.

The diagnosis is confirmed using ultrasound, CT scan and nuclear renogram scans.The good news is that its treatable if detected early enough. In the old days this was a reasonably big surgery with a large incision and a long period of convalescence. In more recent times it has been performed laparoscopically (keyhole surgery), but it’s a technically demanding procedure which requires advanced suturing skills. Imagine eating your food with 50 cm chopsticks and that will give you some idea of the difficulty! These days however we use the robotic platform which makes the suturing much easier and almost more precise.

In situations where the kidney function has deteriorated below 10 or 15%, then it’s better to remove the kidney completely, because fixing the blockage does not improve the function, it simply prevents further deterioration. Anyway, there’s some Urology 101 on PUJ obstruction! Hope you learned something new!!!

Be Well

In Health and Wellness