Emphysematous pyelonephritis complicating pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis: a case report

• Autor(a) principal: Mubarak,M
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Manzoor,K, Kazi,JI, Hussain,M
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://scielo.pt/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0872-01692013000200007
• topic: Acute renal failure; crescentic glomerulonephritis; diabetes mellitus; emphysematous pyelonephritis; mucormycosis

Emphysematous pyelonephritis is a rare, life-threatening condition, characterized by the presence of gas within the renal parenchyma, collecting system or perinephric tissue. It results from an acute severe necrotizing infection of the renal parenchyma, mostly in diabetic patients. We herein describe a young, male patient presenting with acute renal failure with a biopsy diagnosis of pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis. The patient was given steroids and immunosuppressants and discharged home with follow-up appointments. He presented again within one week with fever and right flank pain. Plain computed tomography abdomen revealed emphysematous pyelonephritis and right nephrectomy was performed along with administration of antibiotics and antifungals, but he died three days after surgery. Histopathological examination of the nephrectomy specimen showed extensive infarction, gas-filled cystic spaces and mucormycosis. To our knowledge, this unique combination of kidney pathologies has not been reported in the literature before