20 week scan-possible renal pelvis dilation or duplex kidney

[Waffle12]

Hi all.
We had our 20 week scan this week. All good except one of little one's kidneys is bigger than it should be.

They said they think its either renal pelvis dilation or a duplex kidney.

Apparently it could just correct itself during the pregnancy or in the few weeks after she is born, and we will be given more scans to monitor the situation-the 1st being in 4 weeks time with a consultant.

We have not gone into too much detail about what happens if it doesn't correct itself yet, as they said it's still very early days, but I understand the main thing is that baby could be more prone to urinary infections.

Apparently this is quite common and we are trying not to worry too much , but I was just wondering if anyone else had this picked up at the 20 week scan, and whether it corrected itself?

Thanks in advance
X

I have a duplex kidney. I never knew about it until a really bad spate of urine infections in my early 30s and was sent for a scan. It has no impact on my life really, I did get a few more urine infections when I was younger but once I knew how to manage it better I’ve not had one for years. My daughter (who is nearly 3) has had a few infections and is likely she has one too but they are not worried or doing anything about it.

Can’t help with the other thing.

I had a similar experience at my 20 week scan. My daughter was diagnosed with a duplex kidney and ureterocele at 27 weeks at a more specialist hospital. She had a scan when she was born and another when she was two months. She had an operation at 3 months as her duplex kidney was not draining properly.

She is now 14 months and she had had two uti’s. She is on a daily prophylactic dose of antibiotics. She picks up more colds and viruses than average because of this. I have now started looking into more natural things she can have to reduce the amount of antibiotics she is on (D-Mannose, pro/prebiotics, sambucol etc). They are hoping she will come off the antibiotics once she is potty trained.

I need to be mindful of uti’s, if she ever had a temp I end up taking her to the GP to check for a uti. I have recently bought urine test strips from eBay (just like GP ones). It gives us peace of mind.

Good luck with the next scan, hope it goes well.

I have a duplex kidney and didn’t find out until I was late teens when I got a string of utis and kidney infections one after another. Now I know to be more careful etc. it doesn’t really bother me.

I have a duplex kidney as well and two urethra also. It was picked up when I was around 3 because I had a lot of infections, a temperature and I was getting mouth ulcers etc. I saw a paediatrician regularly until 16 but aside from urinary infections had no problems. I was always told to be careful about holding off a wee because the potential for scarring of the kidney tissue but I was always fine.

As an adult it doesn’t affect me at all. The only thing is I cant donate a kidney if I ever wanted to because it doesn’t work fully ! And in pregnancy I keep getting glucose in my urine and keep being tested for GD (so far so good). It does sound scary but good they’ve picked it up so early.

Hi @Waffle12 - I know this is an old post but was wondering what was your outcome with this situation?

Hi @Srx1

It turned out to be a duplex kidney. Apparently this is relatively common and alot of the time will cause little or no problems.

She did unfortunately fall into the small percentage of cases - and I stress small percentage - where it was more complicated. But she has had excellent care at a well known hospital, and has had 2 operations. She is still on profolaxis antibiotics, but things are looking really good and hopefully now she is at no more risk of UTIs than any other child her age.

I am not sure if you are in the same situation, but if you want to know more then please feel free to ask or message me. X

Thank you for replying @Waffle12 I'm sorry your girl had to go through that but I'm glad she's doing well.
I don't know much yet - I'm having a boy and it is renal pelvis on his right kidney. After reading about it all I wouldn't be so worried but his is already 13mm at 20weeks. I'm seeing a specialist on Monday but I can't stop thinking about it 😔

It's so hard finding out that something isn't quite right at the scans- but they have seen it early and they will keep a really good eye on things. Our little one had dilation aswell.

From what I understand from what we were told at the time, the renal pelvis does have a good chance of decreasing or correcting itself before he is born.

From our experience they kept a really good eye on her through the pregnancy and as we got closer to her due date we were continually kept informed of what the plan would be if things didn't look like they would resolve themselves.

I'm so sorry you are going through this worry. One thing we found reassuring is that we were told that the kidney issues wouldnt cause any problems to the baby while baby was inside. I hope the consultant appointment goes well and gives some reassurance.x

Hi @Srx1

Just wanted to say my son had dilated renal pelvis at the 20 week scan, I was scanned frequently and moved to consultant care and it didn't improve during the pregnancy, he had a scan when we were in hospital within 48 hours of being born, follow up scans and antibiotics for the first year, and a small procedure when he was 9 months old.

I can't remember off the top of my head what the measurements were but I know that the dilated kidney was more than twice the size of the unaffected one, and it continued to increase in size.

At the time I was so worried and felt exactly the same way that you do right now, within a year it had corrected itself and he's almost 20 now and has had no problems since he was a year old.

So I guess I just wanted to say that even if the dilation doesn't improve before your baby is born the outcome can still be ok.

@Waffle12 Thank you for your kind words and reassurance. I really hope it will be ok and that it won't get much bigger. I will try to stay calm in anticipation of the Monday appointment. It's such a long time before he is born and to think it cannot be fixed until then makes me nervous. Xx
@CamdenLurker thank you so much for sharing your situation- I'm so glad it was all good with your son. Did he have problems with uti's later on?Does it affect them getting antibiotics for such a long time? Xx

Honestly it didn't/hasn't affected him at all, he has never had any kidney problems or a single UTI, my pregnancy and the first year were difficult because we didn't know what to expect, midwives didn't really know much about it either.

The Antibiotics he was prescribed were trimethoprim and from memory he had it twice a day for a year, at 9 months he was a day patient at the local hospital for investigations, but by a year old everything had resolved.

Hopefully the consultant will be able to give you further info, I was told by my consultant it's much more common in boys, not sure why.

I know how worrying it is to be given this news and I can remember feeling all sorts when I was told, but the outcome is usually good and it can sort it itself during the pregnancy.

@CamdenLurker oh that is so great that he didn't have any problems later on! You are giving me hope 🤞🏻 especially after reading about the negative stuff and kidney damage ... I also read it is more common in boys and that they don't really know what causes it. if only it sorted itself out..
Yes I can imagine how worrying it was to go through all that... I was hoping I would be able to relax a bit and enjoy the pregnancy after this scan but then this really got me worried, I feel like I'm in some sort of haze these days.. thank you again for sharing this with me xx

How did the appointment go? Did the consultant scan you and give you any more info?

Thank you for asking @CamdenLurker ! Yes so he was scanned again thoroughly by 2 consultants for almost an hour, thankfully everything else looks ok - in regards to dilation they said that it is still 13mm and that everything else about the kidney looks normal. They said that as it is below 15mm it is still considered low risk and booked me for a scan at 32weeks. If everything stays in those low risk parameters, he would just need a scan at 3months. They said they can't tell the cause of it or anything about the function of the kidney. So we just need to wait now and hope it doesn't get bigger ( or ideally that it corrects itself by then). Hopefully it will all be ok.

Thats great news @Srx1, I'm sure that the fact that it hasn't increased since the last scan is a positive sign, from what I can remember my son's kidney measurement was increasing at every scan, I'm fairly sure I was going back every 4 weeks for measuring and scanning.

I hope the appointment put your mind at ease a little, it's so scary when they give you the news, but don't really tell you much else.

Yes it did calm me down a bit, definitely.. it was scary not knowing anything about it and having to google it..thank you so much for your kind words and reassurance ☺️ it means a lot xx