Renal hypoplasia is an abnormality
that a person is born with in which one or both of the
kidney
The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...
s are
smaller than normal (hypoplastic)
but with normal structure.
It is defined as abnormally small kidneys, where the size is less than two
standard deviation
In statistics, the standard deviation is a measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values. A low standard deviation indicates that the values tend to be close to the mean (also called the expected value) of the set, while ...
s below the expected mean for the corresponding demographics, and the morphology is normal.
Disease severity depends on whether hypoplasia is unilateral or bilateral, and the degree of reduction in the number of nephrons.
Presentation
Hypoplastic kidneys are prone to infection and
kidney stone
Kidney stone disease, also known as nephrolithiasis or urolithiasis, is a crystallopathy where a solid piece of material (kidney stone) develops in the urinary tract. Kidney stones typically form in the kidney and leave the body in the urine s ...
formation,
have a reduced
nephron
The nephron is the minute or microscopic structural and functional unit of the kidney. It is composed of a renal corpuscle and a renal tubule. The renal corpuscle consists of a tuft of capillaries called a glomerulus and a cup-shaped structure ca ...
number,
( normal corticomedullary differentiation
)
Complications
Renal hypoplasia is a common cause of
kidney failure
Kidney failure, also known as end-stage kidney disease, is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney failure is classified as eit ...
in children and also of adult-onset disease.
Diagnosis
Diagnosis is typically through
ultrasonography
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies fr ...
.
Prevalence
Epidemiologic studies point to an estimated incidence of 1 in 400 births.
References
{{Reflist
Nephrology