Acute pyelonephritis

Abstract

Pyelonephritis is the inflammation of the upper urinary tract, involving the renal pelvis and parenchyma. Its prompt diagnosis is important in order to avoid both short- and long-term complications such as scarring of the kidneys, hypertension, and in some unfortunate case even chronic renal insufficiency leading to a transplant. In pediatric patients, it usually migrates to the kidney from the bladder, being considered a continuum of disease from the lower to the upper urinary tract, while it is rarely seeded there hematogenously.