Urinary Obstruction

Any injury to the ureter during surgery can cause surgical scarring.

Other causes by kidney stones, upper urinary tract inflammation, or a tumor. As scar tissue builds up in the ureter so does inflammation around the ureter.  This happens for many reasons including a

• External traumatic injury or as a complication of a previous surgery
• Procedure to manage kidney stones
• Surgeries surrounding the ureters, for example, gynecologic or vascular surgical procedures
• Radiation therapy for prostate cancer or other types of cancers
• Tumors
• Autoimmune
• Congenital, meaning they are present at birth

• Side or back pain
• Feeling of fullness
• Blood in the urine
• Nausea
• Urinary tract infections
• Pain worse with increased fluids or alcohol

• Renal ultrasound
• CT scan
• MRI scan
• Renal Nuclear Medicine Scan
• Retrograde Ureteroscopy (Surgeon looks up into the ureter with a small camera to see why there is scarring)

Most often this is congenital and happens from birth. But other causes include:

• Abnormal blood vessel over the ureter
• Scar tissue
• Infection
• Earlier treatments for a blockage
• Kidney stones

• CT urogram (scan of both kidneys with contrast)
• Ultrasound
• Urine and blood test
• Nuclear scan of kidneys
• X-ray of kidneys, bladder, ureters
• Voiding cystourethrogram (X-ray of bladder while it is emptying)

Often bladder cancer can require complete bladder removal, and for men, usually means the prostate as well.

For women this can mean removing the bladder plus the uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries and top of the vaginal wall. When the bladder is removed, the surgeon must reconstruct the bladder so that the urine can pass from the kidney out of the body.  The kidneys which make the urine, the ureters which pass the urine to the bladder, and urethra which passes the urine out of the body are all still in place. There is no known artificial bladder has yet, the surgeon must create one one from intestine. Please See the Bladder cancer treatment page for more information.