Read Ebook: A System of Practical Medicine. By American Authors. Vol. 4 Diseases of the Genito-Urinary and Cutaneous Systems.—Medical Ophthalmology and Otology by Pepper William Editor Starr Louis Editor

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The Distoma haematobium is a parasite found chiefly in the blood-vessels, and especially those of the portal system. It is occasionally, however, met with in the veins of the kidney and also in the urinary passages. Its eggs pass into the pelvis and ureters, and there begin their development, which, however, is soon arrested, as they rapidly perish in the urine.

These parasites appear to produce either by a direct action or by the occlusion of vessels, ulceration, and hemorrhages from the urinary mucous membrane, including that of the bladder. These effects are supposed to be due to the blocking of the smaller vessels by the worms themselves. An adherent deposit consisting of masses of distoma eggs and grains of uric acid sometimes forms in grayish-yellow patches within the ureter, and gives rise to stricture, with dilatation and hydro-nephrosis above. This parasite has been considered the cause of the endemic haematuria of hot countries, but as cases of this affection have been carefully examined for the distoma with negative results, it must be considered as only one among several causes. Strongyli are said to have been found in some of the cases.

Nothing is known of an appropriate TREATMENT for the distoma. An abundant flow of urine might perhaps carry off more rapidly such individuals as have found their way into the urinary passages, and, considering the character of the deposit described above as causing stoppage of the ureter, treatment directed against the uric-acid diathesis might diminish the risk of this particular form of trouble.

Diseases of the Ureters.

Absence of the ureter may take place when one kidney is congenitally absent, though this is not an absolute rule, since the ureter may terminate above in a rounded sac. When a single kidney exists, consisting of the fusion of two, there are usually two ureters opening in the usual position. In one instance, in which only one kidney and one ureter were present, the ureter opened into the bladder on the side opposite to that upon which the kidney was situated.

Not very infrequently two ureters exist in connection with a normal kidney, remaining separate for the whole or a part of their course to the bladder. This condition is merely a sort of exaggeration of the separation between the two branches of the renal pelvis.

A few instances have been noted where a ureter or a fistula connected therewith has opened outside of the bladder at a point near the urethra. This malformation gave rise to symptoms of incontinence of urine, and in one case was remedied by operation.

Abnormal openings of the ureter into the uterus and vagina as the results of pelvic inflammations, and upon the external surface as the result of wounds, have occurred. They are more or less amenable to surgical treatment, and belong to the domain of surgery and gynecology rather than to medicine.

Occlusion of the ureter has already been spoken of in connection with the hydro-nephrosis and pyelitis to which it gives rise. This occlusion results from pressure exerted either at the vesical orifice from cystitis; a little higher up from malignant disease connected with the uterus or a fibroma surrounding the ureter; from contracting adhesions resulting from pelvic inflammation; or from sharp flexions of the tube itself, perhaps also from valvular folds of the mucous membrane. Sometimes its obliteration seems to be the result of old inflammation of the mucous membrane of the ureter itself in connection with that of the renal pelvis. In the latter case the occlusion may be complete at several points, while at others a collection of dry, cheesy, or putty-like material occupies the cavity of the ureter as well as the pelvis of the atrophied kidney.

Cancer is not known primarily to invade the ureter.

Tubercle is not infrequently found in the form of small granulations in cases of general tuberculosis, and it is possible that this deposit may be among the earlier ones; hence a chronic catarrh of the urinary passages without some known cause should be looked upon with suspicion, and the development of phthisis as far as possible guarded against. The presence of these small tubercles in the ureter, if none are present or no ulceration exists in the kidney, are of little or no local importance.

Inflammation of the ureter often exists in connection with cystitis and pyelitis, and in fact constitutes the means by which the higher urinary passages become gradually involved in the diseases below.

The DIAGNOSIS of this condition as a distinct disease is hardly possible, and is besides unnecessary, as the treatment to be directed thereto would be included in that called for by the more extensive and obvious inflammation of the kidney and bladder.

DISEASES OF THE PARENCHYMA OF THE KIDNEYS, AND PERINEPHRITIS.

BY FRANCIS DELAFIELD, M.D.

CHRONIC CONGESTION OF THE KIDNEY.

SYNONYMS.--Passive congestion; Cyanotic induration.

It is now generally recognized that we must separate from the other forms of kidney disease the condition of chronic congestion. Since Traube first called attention to the causation and characters of this lesion, all authors have recognized its special character, although there are still minor differences of opinion concerning it.

ETIOLOGY.--Chronic congestion of the kidney may be produced by any mechanical cause which interferes with the escape of the blood from the renal veins. Thrombi of the veins, tumors pressing on the veins, emphysema of the lungs, hydro-pneumothorax, pericarditis,--all may produce this lesion. As to how often it is produced by the pregnant uterus is still a question. But the most common cause of all is organic disease of the heart. Practically, the lesion comes under consideration as a complication of heart disease, of aneurism of the arch of the aorta, and of emphysema of the lungs.

LESIONS.--If the congestion has not existed for a long time, we find the kidneys increased in size and their weight great in proportion to their size. They are of an unnatural hardness--a hardness which can be imitated by injecting the blood-vessels of a normal kidney with water. The capsules are not adherent, the surfaces of the kidneys are smooth. Both the cortical and pyramidal portions are congested, and this congestion gives the entire organs a peculiar reddish, livid color. No lesions are found in the Malpighian bodies, tubes, stroma, or blood-vessels, except that the epithelium of the convoluted tubes may be a little swollen.

If the congestion has lasted for a longer time, the kidneys may continue to be large or they may be somewhat reduced in size; the weight remains out of proportion to the size. There are the same unnatural color and consistence. The capsules are now often slightly adherent and the surfaces of the kidneys finely nodular. In the cortex there may be patches of new connective tissue enclosing atrophied tubules, or there may be a more diffuse growth of connective tissue separating the tubes from each other. In the convoluted tubules the epithelial cells may be swollen and finely granular, or very much swollen and coarsely granular, so as to nearly fill the tubes, or flattened so that the cavities of the tubes are unnaturally large. The tubes may also contain cast-matter and detached and broken epithelial cells. The capsules of the Malpighian bodies may be a little thickened and the capsular endothelium swollen. In the pyramids the epithelium of the straight tubes may be granular and detached, and there is often cast-matter in the looped tubes. It is difficult to tell whether there is any real change in the veins of the kidney.

As a result of the same interference with the venous circulation, similar changes are found in other parts of the body--in the lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, small intestine, and pia mater. In all these organs there is, first, simply a venous congestion, then after a time structural changes are added. Formation of new connective tissue and of new functional cells of the particular organ, degeneration of these cells, dilatation and tortuousness of the small veins and capillaries, are regularly present. The kidney lesion, therefore, is only one of a number of lesions, all dependent on a common mechanical cause.

SYMPTOMS.--Of the persons who die with chronic congestion of the kidney, a large number present marked symptoms during life, but it is difficult to determine how largely these symptoms are due to the congestion of the kidney.

A congestion of the kidney of only a few days' duration does not seem usually to give rise to any symptoms. Even if such a congestion is prolonged to two or three weeks, as we see in some cases of hydro-pneumothorax from perforation of the lung, there may be no renal symptoms and no changes in the urine. On the other hand, it is extremely rare for organic heart disease or emphysema of the lungs to prove fatal without some disease of the kidneys.

The question is still further complicated by the fact that both in cardiac disease and emphysema there may be either chronic congestion of the kidney or chronic diffuse nephritis with the same symptoms.

After excluding the cases of cardiac hypertrophy secondary to kidney disease and the cardiac diseases with complications, I find in my casebooks 137 cases in which the patients died simply from heart disease, changes in the viscera due to the disturbance of the venous circulation, and kidney disease. Of these cases, 84 presented the lesions of chronic diffuse nephritis; 53 were in the state of chronic congestion. Of the cases of chronic diffuse nephritis, 27 were large white kidneys, 29 atrophied kidneys, 28 could not be classed as either large white or atrophied. In these cases there existed during life certain regular symptoms. There were changes in the urine, dropsy, headache, delirium, convulsions, coma, dyspnoea, vomiting, cough, haemoptysis, loss of flesh and strength.

As regards the quantity of the urine, there was a very great variety until shortly before the patient's death; then the urine was usually diminished in amount, sometimes suppressed. A very marked decrease in the amount of urine was more constant in the cases of chronic diffuse nephritis than in those of chronic congestion. But in several cases both of chronic diffuse nephritis and of chronic congestion the patients passed from thirty to forty ounces of urine up to the time of their deaths.

Albumen and casts were often present--nearly always with the large white kidneys, not nearly as constantly with atrophied kidneys or with the cases of chronic congestion. In cases of chronic congestion the albumen was usually in small amount and often not accompanied with casts.

The specific gravity of the urine was apt to be low with chronic diffuse nephritis and high with chronic congestion, but there were many exceptions to this rule. With large white kidneys, atrophied kidneys, simple diffuse nephritis, and chronic congestion the specific gravity might be either normal, high, or low up to the time of death.

Transudation of the serum into the subcutaneous connective tissue and the serous cavities was a very constant symptom. It was a little more constant, and perhaps usually reached a greater degree, in the cases of chronic diffuse nephritis than in those of chronic congestion.

Headache, delirium, convulsions, and coma occurred in a moderate number of all the cases.

Dyspnoea was a very frequent symptom in all the cases.

Vomiting was also present in many cases.

Cough, with mucus or muco-purulent sputa, sometimes with haemoptysis, was a very common symptom.

Many of the patients lost flesh and strength and became anaemic.

COURSE OF THE DISEASE.--There is a great deal of similarity in the histories of patients who suffer from the combination of cardiac and renal disease. There is first the history of the heart disease. A patient goes on for a number of years, sometimes apparently perfectly well and unconscious that his heart is diseased, sometimes more or less troubled with cough, cardiac dyspnoea, and palpitation. But after a longer or shorter time there is a marked change for the worse. Either gradually or rapidly the cough becomes worse, the dyspnoea greater, the functions of the stomach are disturbed, the patient loses flesh and strength, dropsy is developed, and finally cerebral symptoms. Some die suddenly, some with exhaustion, some with dropsy, some with dyspnoea, some comatose. It is always possible for the patient to recover from the first attack of this kind, sometimes even from a second, but eventually there comes an attack which proves fatal.

The most striking cases are those in which cardiac disease exists for many years without giving any symptoms, and then the symptoms are developed rapidly. Such persons, although they have organic disease of the heart, may seem to enjoy perfect health. They may even be able to take long walks, climb mountains, or perform laborious work. On some day they suddenly become sick. Sometimes the exciting cause of the attack is a pleurisy or a pericarditis, sometimes there is no apparent cause. The first symptom is usually dyspnoea, and this is not an ordinary cardiac dyspnoea. It is a very distressing and constant dyspnoea, which does not allow the patients to lie down. They pass days and nights sitting in a chair, fatigued, ready to sleep, but kept awake by the constant dyspnoea. Some of these patients will die at the end of a few days; others live longer and develop dropsy, anaemia, and cerebral symptoms.

When the chronic congestion of the kidneys is secondary to emphysema of the lungs, the course of affairs is much the same. The patient goes on for a number of years with the ordinary symptoms of emphysema, and then gradually or suddenly becomes worse. Dyspnoea, dropsy, anaemia, cerebral symptoms make their appearance, and the case terminates in the same way as the cardiac cases.

DURATION.--How long congestion of the kidneys may exist without producing symptoms it is hard to say. Certainly it may exist for a number of days without any apparent disturbance of the functions of the kidney. Whether it may exist for a time, give symptoms, and then disappear, is uncertain; the rule seems to be that the lesion, when once well established, persists up to the death of the patient.

TREATMENT.--It must be acknowledged that we can hardly hope for a cure of the lesion of the kidneys, and that even alleviation of the symptoms is not always possible. The mechanical cause of the obstruction to the venous circulation cannot be removed, and it is not only the functions of the kidneys that are disturbed, but those of the lungs, liver, spleen, stomach, and small intestine. Still, we can do something. The iodide of potassium, convallaria, caffeine, and digitalis may be of service in equalizing and strengthening the heart's action, and at the same time act as diuretics. Inhalations of the nitrite of amyl dilate the arteries and capillaries, and so unload the veins. Opium is the great remedy for the dyspnoea, although it must be given with caution. Inhalations of ether may render the patient's last days more comfortable.

BRIGHT'S DISEASE OF THE KIDNEYS.

After considering separately the condition of chronic congestion of the kidney, we find that there are a group of kidney diseases characterized by certain rational symptoms, changes in the urine, and alterations in the structure of the kidneys which are popularly known by the name of Bright's disease.

Various attempts have been made to classify these cases.

With our present knowledge of the subject it seems to me most convenient to speak of acute and chronic parenchymatous nephritis and acute and chronic diffuse nephritis. I include under the head of parenchymatous nephritis all those kidneys in which the lesions are strictly confined to the epithelial cells lining the tubules and the capsules of the glomeruli; under the head of diffuse nephritis, those kidneys in which the lesions involve the tubes, stroma, glomeruli, and arteries; under the head of interstitial nephritis, those kidneys in which the essential morbid changes are in the stroma.

This classification seems to me to be theoretically correct, but yet I must admit that from a clinical standpoint nearly all the cases may be conveniently arranged into the two classes of acute and chronic Bright's disease.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE.--There are a certain number of symptoms common to all the varieties of Bright's disease, and it is convenient to consider them before going on to the special description of each of these varieties. These symptoms are--

Changes in the Urine.--Healthy adults usually secrete during the twenty-four hours from 40 to 50 ounces of urine of a light-yellow color, of acid reaction, of a specific gravity of 1015 to 1025, and holding in solution a number of excrementitious substances. Small amounts of albumen and of sugar seem to be, in some persons, physiological ingredients of the urine.

In most cases of Bright's disease the quantity of the urine at some time in the course of the disease deviates from the normal standard. Either the urine is increased in amount or diminished or suppressed, and in the course of the same case the urine may be at one time increased, at another diminished.

We find in healthy persons that the quantity of urine varies with the amount of fluids that are imbibed and with the condition of the skin and the bowels--that nervous influences and certain drugs will increase or diminish the amount of urine. Physiologists teach us that the amount of urine excreted varies with the degree of the blood-pressure in the renal arteries or with the rapidity with which the blood circulates through these arteries.

The urine may be very much increased or diminished in amount as the result of various morbid conditions. Scanty urine or suppression of urine is observed in the course of acute parenchymatous and acute diffuse nephritis and in the early stages of the development of the large white kidney. During the course of any case of chronic Bright's disease there are usually periods during which the urine is scanty or suppressed, especially toward the close of the disease. The kidney lesions which complicate scarlet fever, yellow fever, and cholera are often attended with suppression of urine. Any diseases accompanied by a well-marked rise of temperature are apt to be associated with a diminution in the amount of urine. Injuries to the urethra, even very slight ones, may be followed by complete suppression of urine, without any changes in the kidneys except congestion.

Marked diminution in the amount of urine occurring in the course of acute and chronic Bright's disease is usually associated with the development of cerebral symptoms--headache, restlessness, delirium, muscular twitchings, convulsions, stupor, and coma. Such a change in the amount of the urine usually lasts only a few days and may terminate fatally, or the quantity of urine will increase and the patient get better. There are, however, cases in which the suppression of urine lasts for several days without the development of uraemic symptoms. Whitelaw relates a case of suppression of urine lasting for twenty-five days in a boy eight years old. The suppression began twelve weeks after an attack of scarlatina. There were no uraemic symptoms, and the child recovered completely.

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