SPONTANEOUS RUPTURE OF THE KIDNEY

Abstract

Spontaneous, or nontraumatic, rupture of the kidneys is very rare, only twenty-four instances¹having been found in a careful search of the literature, with two of these probably caused by indirect trauma. Rupture of the kidney without hemorrhage is even more rare. A case presenting signs of urinary extravasation could not be found. Herzog²found sixteen cases of spontaneous rupture, and one open injury to the kidney in 7,805 necropsies. Speese,¹in 1913, collected reports of twenty-one cases of spontaneous rupture of the kidney with perirenal hematoma, to which Wade,¹Thomas¹and Connell¹have each added a case. The case here reported makes a total of twenty-five. Other authors³have collected reports of a few more cases, but the spontaneity in some is doubtful. The causes were tuberculosis, abscess, tumor, necrosis of the suprarenal, traumatism and hemophilia, with chronic nephritis always present. Abetti