CORTICAL NECROSIS OF THE KIDNEY FOLLOWING TONSILLITIS

Abstract

Bilateral, symmetric necrosis of the renal cortex is a rare condition which during the life of the patient often represents a rather difficult diagnostic problem. Kaufmann¹ described this condition as an extensive necrosis of the cortex of the kidney leading to rapid suppression of the excretion of urine and to death attended by uremic symptoms. Extensive confluent yellowish areas of cortical necrosis are found surrounded by deep red hemorrhagic rims and associated with extensive thromboses of the intrarenal arteries and veins. This lesion has been observed chiefly as a fatal complication of pregnancy, and 86 per cent of the cases reported in the literature fall in this group (Evans and Gilbert²). Other etiologic factors, such as tonsillitis, periarteritis nodosa, diphtheria, pulmonary tuberculosis, peritonitis and intravenous injections of camphor, must be considered as extremely rare; they are responsible for the small number of cases in which the condition has