Multicystic Renal Dysplasia

Definition

A nonheritable developmental disease resulting of abnormal metanephric differentiation.

Clinical Features

• Incidence

  It occurs in 1 in 4300 live births. Multicystic dysplastic kidneys are also a finding of genetic disorders (Sanna-Cherchi et al. 2007).

• Age

  It is a congenital urinary tract anomaly (Bernstein 1971).

• Sex

  Multicystic renal dysplasia affects predominantly males.

• Site

  The condition is usually unilateral.

• Treatment

  Although previously, nephrectomy was the treatment of choice to avoid potential complications such as infection, pain, hypertension, and malignancy, to date the management is primarily conservative.

• Outcome

  Most patients have a favorable prognosis.

Multicystic renal dysplasia is usually sporadic but may rarely be associated with obstruction, multi-malformation syndromes, chromosomal anomalies, or hereditary malformation syndromes. Unilateral multicystic renal dysplasia is the most common cause of renal mass in childhood. Bilateral lesions may be present...