Duplex Collecting System

Kidneys play a vital role for the human body. The kidneys act as a filter, as they control chemicals that are introduced to the body and regulate the urine that will be excreted. “The kidneys must filter all blood, remove waste products, reabsorb selected substances needed by the body, and secrete what is not needed by the body in the form of urine” (Linn-Watson,2014). The urinary system consists of two kidneys, each of which is connected to the bladder by a ureter. The urine flows from the kidneys, to the bladder via the ureters. Then from the bladder, the urine is excreted from the body by the urethra. This process can be very simple, but when there are pathologies present the process becomes complicated. Duplex collecting systems is the main topic and how it may become complicated by vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) and ureterocele will be covered in this paper.
Duplex collecting system, also known as double ureters, happens to be one of the most common congenital anomalies (Linn-Watson, 2014). In a normal kidney, there is only one ureter to drain each of the kidneys. In a duplex collecting system, one or both
The patient complained of being sore and being mildly uncomfortable during the exam. With review of the radiologist report it stated had a unilateral duplex collecting system (Farley, 2015). The pathology occurred on the left side, where the patients left kidney was mildly enlarged measuring 14cm long (Farley, 2015). Both ureters were imaged leaving the kidney and disappeared after the level of L4 (Farley, 2015). At the level of L4, the ureters did not opacify with contrast (Farley, 2015). Dr. Farley stated that the right kidney was of normal size with a normal collecting system and no signs of hyfronephrosis. Also, the bladder was of normal size and there was no evidence of filling defects or significant post-void lingering (Farley,