Ahmed Shafik

Department of Surgery and Experimental Research, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt

Received 3/20/98 Accepted 4/30/98

2. INTRODUCTION

Renal or ureteral diseases are often associated with gastrointestinal symptoms. Patients with acute pyelonephritis present not only with a localized flank pain, chills, fever and symptoms of vesical irritation but also with abdominal pain and distension (1-5). Renal colic is commonly associated with nausea, vomiting and abdominal distension (6-10). In some patients, the pain is felt deep in the pelvis and anus. Retrograde urograms which overdistend the renal pelvis may cause nausea, vomiting and a cramp-like pain in the abdomen (11-13). In other urologic conditions, like urolithiasis, which may be urologically silent, gastrointestinal symptoms may be present, leading to diagnostic confusion (14-15).

The current communication describes the effect of renal pelvic and ureteric distension on the anorectal function.