Your Baby’s Dilated Kidney Drainage Tubes
We offer ultrasound scans to all pregnant women in this
hospital because we feel it is useful for many reasons. We
use them early in pregnancy to check the dates and the
number of babies. In mid pregnancy we try and make sure
that the baby looks normal. And in late pregnancy we use
scans to see, how well he or she is growing, where the
placenta is. and which way round the baby is lying.
More and More Detail
Ultrasound is very good at picking up some major
abnormalities such as spina bifida. As both the machines
and our skills are improving, we can look at many more
parts of the baby and in greater detail. This means that in
some babies we can pick up very small changes that we
have been unable to see before.
Unfortunately we
sometimes do not always know exactly what many of these
changes mean. But w e do know from past experience that
most of these small changes are variations of normal
anatomy.
during your ultrasound examination, it was found that your
baby had this kind of renal pelvic dilatation.
What Next?
We know that this dilatation usually reduces or disappears
by 32 weeks, and you will therefore be offered a repeat
scan at that time to see what has happened to your baby. If
there is still some dilatation a follow-up scan after the baby
is born will be suggested.
How serious?
About 1 in every 100 babies have a dilated renal pelvis at
some time during pregnancy and the vast majority come to
no harm. But this finding seems to be more common in
babies with some other more serious problems. From our
studies so far it seems likely that all the babies which have
other problems also have other changes which we can pick
up with a careful ultrasound scan.
Re-assurance
The Renal Pelvis
This “Renal (Kidney) Pelvis” has nothing to do with the
pelvis (or hip) bone. The kidneys filter waste in a fluid form
from the blood stream. From the two kidneys, one on each
side, the fluid, now called urine, goes down two tubes,
called ureters, into the bladder. The top end of these two
tubes where they connect to the kidney is always a bit
wider than the lower part of the kidney tube and this urine
collecting part of the kidney tube system is confusingly
called the “pelvis” of the kidney.
We have looked very carefully at your baby and everything
appears to be normal apart from the dilated renal pelvis.
We are therefore as confident as possible that your baby
does not have any important problems and that our findings
are not of any significance.
So although, because it exists, we have written down
in your scan report about your baby’s dilated renal
pelvis, we do NOT think that it is likely that this finding
is too important or a sign of any serious problem!
Dilated Renal Pelvis
One of our new findings is that in quite a large number of
babies the renal pelvis is dilated (wider than normal). And
DON’T HESITATE TO KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND ALL YOU WANT TO KNOW.
Please always remember that the most likely outcome of your pregnancy will be a normal, healthy baby.
If you have any further questions, please feel to contact:
)
THE MATERNITY STAFF WISH YOU WELL FOR YOUR PREGNANCY
AND TRUST THAT IN DUE TIME YOU WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A GOOD HEALTHY BABY
Sister
Prenatal Screening Co-ordinator
Based on a leaflet created originally created by Sister Ann Foakes, Screening Co-ordinator, Milton Keynes Hospital Copyright Free Aug 2008
For a full set of leaflets, www.fawdry.info Readability: Grade 9.2
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