Congenital Defects Related to Kidney/Upper Urinary Tract

i) Renal Agenesis 

A new born baby with this condition may show low set ears, flat nose, prominent epicanthic folds and small chin. This defect occurs when the ureteric bud does not grow up into the nephrogenic blastoma, the kidneys do not develop and the result is agenesis.

ii) Horse Shoe (fused) Kidney, Renal Ectopia

An ectopic kidney may lie in pelvis or the iliac fossa. It may be hypoplastic or normal in structure. The child may sometimes have abdominal discomfort and dysuria or there may be no symptom. In horse shoe kidney the identical poles of kidney are fused.

iii) Polycystic Kidney

In this the renal tissue is full of multiple small cysts and organ is palpable as a large spongy kidney of new born. There may be hypertension, congestion, cardiac failure and uremia which prove fatal in early life. This is an inherited autosomal recessive disease.

iv) Multicystic Kidney

It is inherited as autosomal dominant disease, multiple cysts are present in both kidney. It' is the commonest cause of renal mass in infants. In this nephrectomy is necessary as renal functioning is very little.