Surgical diseases of the kidney Author:Henry Morris Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: median line of the body, their position would be sufficiently suggestive to prevent error. In cases of a kidney wasted or atrophied by disease, the clinical h... more »istory and characters of the urine would generally afford a guide and warning; but despite all care there must sometimes be a risk in nephrectomy, whether abdominal or lumbar, of leaving behind no vestige of sound kidney tissue, if the operation is resorted to for certain classes of cases. These cases are, most especially, tuberculous disease, and calculous pyelitis when there are grounds for thinking that both kidneys have been afflicted at some time or other. Congenitally small kidneys are often healthy in structure; but it is doubtful at present how long life could be sustained with only one ounce, or one and a half ounces, of healthy renal substance. We know that we are endowed with at least twice the quantity of renal tissue necessary for active vigorous life, but we do not know the minimum amount which is requisite for comfortable and active existence. (See case by Eustachius, mentioned on page 81.) CHAPTER VII. "UNSYMMETRICAL " KIDNEY. This is the true type of congenital absence of one kidney. There is one normal, or at least functionally normal, kidney, and its fellow is altogether deficient . The corresponding suprarenal capsule is wanting in about one out of every ten cases of congenital absence of the kidney. Situation.—The existing kidney may be situated either in its natural position, or may be misplaced on to the spine or in some other direction. Meckel has stated that when the kidney is situated in the pelvis it retainsits tabulated and foetal appearance throughout life. This is not borne out by all the cases. In Polk's case, a young woman, ffit. nineteen, had but one kidney, which was misplac...« less