20 week scan shows urine retention in left kidney - hydronephrosis.

[cfc]

Has anyone had this at their 20 week scan?

The measurement is 9.3mm which is high, bearing in mind the average is below 4mm.

Looking for some reassurance please! We are seeing the consultant on Monday, but in the meantime Google is not being my friend!

Hi cfc. I'm sorry you're so worried. I have no experience of this but just happened to have recently been reading this site re Ultrasound markers

www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/antenatalhealth/scans/ultrasoundmarkers/

Look under Renal pelvic dilation - "Some babies with Down's syndrome have RPD but it's a very poor marker. Many normal babies have RPD, too. If no other markers or abnormalities are seen, your baby will be scanned again at 34 weeks by which time the kidneys may well look normal"

Not sure what the definition of 'mild' hydronephrosis. Hope someone else with more information or personal experience comes along soon. In the meantime good luck x

Sorry I'll try that link again www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/antenatalhealth/scans/ultrasoundmarkers/

Thanks HT. We had good results on the bloods and NT scan for Downs so I don't think my main worry is about that (although the worry is there, obviously) but more so kidney damage if baby is holding stagnated urine in there for term.

It's funny, before the scan DH was so excited and I was really quiet. I just knew sometime was going to be awry. Mother's intuition?!

Hi, i cant tell you much about baby with this condition but my sister suffers from this kidney condition. She is 28 now and has just recovered from an op to remove the damaged kidney and is very well and healthy.Growing up she suffered from recurring urine infections but her condition was not diagnosed till she was a teen. Her condition really only became an issue when she was pg 5 years ago and i think it put a strain on her kidney it ended up shrivelled with cysts and caused her a few infections and high blood pressure. but now its removed she feels great and no longer has to take tablets for the blood pressure.

I hope this helps,and i hope everything is ok with your baby.

I was told this at 20 weeks. I had regular scans every 3 weeks throughout preg. It remained constant throughout. Was told all along it was nothing to be too worried about!!!! That didn't stop me worrying for the last 20 weeks.

However, had a normal delivery and my dd was fine and I didn't have to do anything different with her. She was on anti biotics from 5 days (1/2 ml)until she was 18 months. It did cause infections but nothing too bad looking back (prob didn't think that at the time)

We decided to let her have an operation to sort it out at 18 months and within 2 hours of the op she was cured and has been super ever since.

A lot of cases we were told clear up by themselves and I met plenty of other children with this condition where it had cleared up. It is also apparantly more common in boys so when our DD popped out it was a bit of a shock!! A nice one though.

She is very proud of her scar and I have to say that she is none the worse for it and likes to tell people she has had an operation. She is now 2 1/2.

Hope you have good news and really it may feel like the end of the world now but I just felt lucky that it was her kidney and not her heart and brain!!

Good luck

My baby has the same - had one scan at 26 weeks still 5mm (so borderline) on one kidney, getting scanned again at 34 weeks. Did wonder if it was a soft marker as both at 20 week and 26 week scan they asked me for my nuchal score.

More common in boys, I'm having a boy. Hoping it will have gone by 34 weeks. i was told antibiotics would have to be given at birth if it has gone away.

It is worrying though.

My nephew had this. His mum had a scan at about 36 weeks and it was still there. He was put on antibiotics and ended up having a stoma at about 9mths to a year to see if his kidney would start functioning. It didn't so kidney was removed when he was about 18 months old. He was fine but told to avoid contact sports when older due to having only kidney. I think this is probably the worse case senario.

He also had a very rare condition with his eye whereby the eyelid was so tight it turned under itself and caused a corneal abrasion and is now virtually blind in that eye. His mum and family noticed there was a problem almost immediately but it took 6 weeks and 2 doctors and 2 consultants to pick it up (thought she was a neurotic mum) and by that time the damage had been done. I would hasten to add that this condition was extremely rare and the consultant at GOS had only seen 2 cases in 20 years but apparently the eyes and kidneys are linked.

This must be worrying for you. Don't underestimate how much worry can take it out of you, and so be kind to yourself.

We have had a 20 week scan issue too, so I know what you're going through a bit. Don't know anything about the condition though - ours is different thing.