A Clinical Observation on Urothelial Tumor of the Upper Urinary Tract

Rhee, Hong Woo; Lim, Su Kil

Abstract

urothelial tumors of the upper urinary tract are relatively uncommon, mostly malignant. 25 patients with urothelial tumor of upper urinary tract seen at St. Mary`s hospital from Jan. 1975 to Dec. 1986 are reviewed retrospectively. The average age was 57.3 years, approximately half of them being more than 60 years old. Gross Hematuria was the most prevalent sign and cytologic examination of the urine has proved not to be diagnostic. The most common findings of excretory urography and retrograde urography were non- visualization of the kidney and filling defect. CT can help to evaluate the extent of disease by determining the invasion or metastasis to surrounding tissues or retroperitoneal node. All 25 patients were surgically explored, 23 patients underwent nephroureterectomy and 6 of them was also done lymphadenectomy, distal ureterectomy with ureteral reimplantation was done in 1 patient and simple nephrectomy was done under the misdiagnosis of renal tuberculosis in 1 patient. There were close relations between histological grade and pathologic grade. Of the 25 patients, stage A and grade II were the most common, each of them were 11 and 16 cases. The over-all 2 year survival rate of 13 patients followed up was seventy percent.