Scarred kidney

[Dilbertian]

Some years ago dd had a UTI that developed into an abscess in a kidney. She was treated and recovered fully. Recently she had an ultrasound for an unrelated condition and it was noted that she had scarring on that kidney.

Can anyone point us to reliable resources to help us understand the significance of this finding? All I can find so far talks about scarring caused by CKD, in turn causing it to progress. I found one study following up scarring caused by UTI, but that was in mice not humans.

I can't cite anything that will directly answer your question but if this were my child I would not be concerned - assuming recurrent infections have not been an issue, the kidney is a normal size, and the other kidney is unremarkable.

A renal abscess of any size is extremely unlikely to heal and leave no trace, and kidneys are well visualised by ultrasound.

I can’t reference any studies but as a very young child I had repeated problems with UTI’s which left me with scaring on my kidney, I clearly recall that at one point they were considering removing it, for whatever reason they didn’t. I’m 48 now and not has a single problem with it. I know my issues started as a baby, I never fully emptied my bladder, once I was old enough to understand I no longer had issues. I wouldn’t be too concerned