Urinary tract
The (draining) urinary tract are the anatomical structures through which the urine is transported away from the kidneys, temporarily stored and finally excreted.
The urinary tract includes:
- the paired renal pelvis ( pelvis renalis )
- the paired ureter ( ureter )
- the urinary bladder ( Vesica urinaria )
- the urethra ( urethra )
The urinary tract are hollow muscular organs with their own autonomous muscles, some of which can be influenced arbitrarily. They are lined with a special epithelium , the urothelium , the specialty of which is that they can expand and contract again because the epithelial cells lie on top of one another like scales.
Malformations, diseases
The most common problem affecting the urinary tract is acute inflammation of the bladder (cystitis) . This is favored in women primarily by the urethra, which is much shorter than in men, and in older men by a drainage obstruction caused by prostatic hyperplasia . The most feared complication of a cystitis is inflammation of the kidneys ( pyelitis or pyelonephritis ).
A blockage of urine can result from an obstruction to drainage, with the threatening consequences of an overflow bladder , a hydroureter and hydronephrosis . Due to the chronic pressure increase in the hollow system, the parenchyma of the upstream kidney (or the upstream kidneys) can be completely destroyed.
Malformations in the urinary tract are more frequently diagnosed in small male children (see, for example, hypospadias , epispadias ). Other notable and relatively common malformations are ureteral stenosis , numerical malformations such as a ureter duplex or ureter fissus and malformations of a ureter into the bladder ( ureterectopia ).
Stone diseases (stone diseases) are caused by urinary stones that can occur in all levels of the urinary tract and can lead to a loss of kidney function .
The urinary tract can also be affected by tumors and malformations.
For other diseases: see the individual organs.
literature
- Uwe Gille: urinary organs . In: Franz-Viktor Salomon et al. (Hrsg.): Anatomie für die Tiermedizin . Enke, Stuttgart 2004. ISBN 3-8304-1007-7 .
- Joachim Frey : Diseases of the kidneys, the water and salt balance, the urinary tract and the male genital organs. In: Ludwig Heilmeyer (ed.): Textbook of internal medicine. Springer-Verlag, Berlin / Göttingen / Heidelberg 1955; 2nd edition ibid. 1961, pp. 893-996, here: pp. 978-990 ( Clinic of Diseases of the Urinary Tract ).
