Hi

It sounds like you have UPJ or UVJ.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/ar ticle/001267.htm

UPJ is a kink near the kidney...UVJ is a kink near the bladder.

This occurs a lot in children but adults have it as well. many are born with it and it goes unnoticed until a scan is performed for another symptom.

Hope this helps.

thanks for that reply! have you or anyone got any idea how it can be rectified?

Depending on the degree of the kink, unfortunately the only way to fix it is surgery. If it is obstructing your kidney to the point that you are in pain or have hydronephrosis.
Some doctors will not do anything until it becomes moderate to severe or severe.

Feel free to pm me...I've been through this more than once.

All the best...

thanks you've helped a lot! i've been in pain with this condition for over 20 years now. i feel so fed up to think a simple scan could have diagnosed things years ago especially as the kidney infections have hospitalized me on many occassions. many years ago i even lost 9 pregnancies because the infections used to get so severe they'd cause misscarriages.
at present the pain is with me all the time and i have a general feeling of being weak and unwell. my surgeon until now has just scratched his head and hasn't known what to do so quite honestly i wouldn't care if they ripped it out with hteir bear hands as long as i eventually experience some relief.
what worries me though is that the radiologist said she she the kink and some dialation in my right kidney but in her opinion those things shouldn't cause the problems i have??? my last stay in hospital was last month for 6 days where i was on morphine so the symptoms are fairly unpleasant and the pain when in full flow excrutiating!!
next stop an mri scan which i suppose will make the picture even clearer.
do you or have you suffered from a similair thing and how was your treatment plan?
i'e got a feeling that in terms of kidneys the doctors are just guessing their diagnosis half the time in the hope that it'll go away eventually!!!

I had surgery to correct mine. Do you see a urologist? If not you should think about seeing one as they are the ones who will determine the degree of the kink.
Another test they run is a lasix renal scan to check the flow of the kidneys.
I hope you feel better soon..

yes i've been seeing a urologist for some years now and he's done numerous tests but had never done the scan before (unbelievable!) although i had the one when they put the dye in you many years ago. is the operation quite a big one or a simple procedure?
as i posted before i'm having an mri scan soon so that should show things up a bit clearer!
thanks for all your support so far it's been a real help!!

The surgery depends on the degree of the obstruction. There's a newer procedure called endoplyotmy, it's preferred for first time surgery on UPJ obstructions. This is a laser type procedure versus an open repair with an incision on your side about 5-6 inches long.
My last operation was over six hours. Don't let that scare you, everyone is different. I also have a kidney disease so it made things a bit more complicated for me.

Please keep me posted and feel free to pm me anytime.

I had UPJ obstruction on my left kidney. As serenity says, everyone is different. I had a pyloplasty which is plastic surgery on your kidney. I went to a urologist who was able to diagnose it with a renal scan and cystoscopy. If you have any questions please ask. I wish you good luck with your MRI.

Things are not looking much clearer!! Have just had another 5 day hospital stay because of an acute kidny infection again (thats 3 in the last 7 mths that have needed me tobe hospitalized) The doctors are now saying despite what the radiologist noticed the radiographer thinks there isn't a kink in my ureter and the main thing that showed upin my scan was a dilated right kidney.As for the MRI that just showed scarring again on my right kidney so they're left a bit confused as to what the problem is!!! I'm left feeling really fed up!! Whilst in hospital I had a renogram which looked at how well the kidneys were working but as yet I haven't had the results back.I just feellike nothing getting done to resolve my problems, everytime I'm admitted they do 1 more test that invariably shows non conclusive results and then I'm left with them calling me an enigma until the next time I'm admitted!!! Can any one suggest anything I can ask them to do or has anyone been through the same as me?? Yhis has been goingon for 20 years now and it's really getting me down!!!

Hi Marie,
I'm not sure if you are still suffering without answers, but I have also been told that I have a kink in my rigt ureter as well as kidney stones in both kidneys, a cyst in my left kidney and a cyst in my liver dome. The only advice that I can give you is find a good teaching hospital close to you and set up an appointment with their urologist. Although my troubles have just started and aren't severe, we have had a time with my Dad since last August concerning staph infections, strokes and heart problems. We transferred him from our local hospital to WFU Baptist hospital in Winston Salem, NC and they saved his life with open heart surgery. After almost a year of other problems we finally realized that Baptist had done all they were going to do. So as my dad started to go down hill again we have now transferred him to Duke in Durham, NC. They ran some test (that WFU had also run earlier) and realized that my dad's heart is back in AFIB so he has to have an ablation done. The thing is that after awhile you become another patient at the back of the doctors mind. Most doctors lay down a gameplan the first time they hear your symptoms and if those don't pan out sometimes the urgency of your situation fades in their mind. The teaching hospitals are so cool because it isn't just 1 or 2 doctors looking over your chart, it's a team of like 7 or 8 people discussing your symptoms and throwing out ideas. Long story short is we drive my dad 3 hours 1 way to see his cardiologist and as long as they continue to do the great job that they are doing and cure him we will continue. If however we feel that they no longer have a clue what to do with him then we will move on to another doctor in another state if necessary, because someone will eventually get lucky and find the answer. Good luck to you!

Thanks for the message!! Fortuneatly I ended up being referred to another surgeon April just passed and he decided that altough there was no clear reason why I had this condition the decision was made to remove the kidney and ureter which happened soon after in June!!! I am now after all these years finally pain free and feeling great!!! I go back in October to have an updated appointment to speak to the surgeon and hopefully then I will get the resullts of the pathology reports that were done on the kidney (that should be interesting!!!)

Hey marie! I've been having consistent UTI's and kidney stones for the past 10 years of my life. Seeing that I'm 18, that's most of my life. I just found out today that I indeed have a kink in my right ureter. My surgery date is in a little over a month, but I'm relieved to know now what the cause was to all of my pain. Hopefully they don't have to remove my entire kidney and ureter...I've got my fingers crossed. I'm just glad that I'm not the only one

Hi marie I have had the exact same problem its on my right hand side of my kidney it seems to be thats where you usually get the kink. I have had the kink before but due to my last several operations the kink has disapeared?! but has now returned after a recent visit to hospital for a ultra sound scan of my ovaries, kidneys and showed up I have a collapsed uretha tube and a huge kink in my ureter. I am having an operation next month and am going to get a pre med on tuesday. I think its just a weakness we have but I think once you have it done it gets weakened over a period of time been corrected. Hey does anyone ever have any fluid dischrage at all when you go to the toilet? I dont know anyone has had that? I dont know if that is too do with my kidneys I get reflux a lot. look forward to hearing back from anyone x