What Causes Pyelonephritis?

Causes of Pyelonephritis in Women

The cause of female pyelonephritis is that the kidneys become infected with pathogenic bacteria. The infection may spread through the bloodstream or ascend the pathway from the external genitourinary organs. To start the inflammatory process, sometimes a small hypothermia is enough - a local decrease in immunity becomes a catalyst for the onset of disease. It often affects the bladder first - cystitis occurs, and then the infection rises higher in the kidneys.

Another cause of pyelonephritis in women is the presence of congenital or acquired barriers to the flow of urine. They may be cysts, stones, tumors, and narrowing (strictures).
As a result, the kidneys develop a favorable, stagnant atmosphere in which disease-causing microbes actively develop.

Causes of Pyelonephritis in Men

The causes of pyelonephritis in men are slightly different from those that cause the disease in women. If women have a predominantly ascending infection, men report onset after urinary difficulties. They are caused by mechanical obstacles that block the flow of urine (mainly kidney and urinary tract stones and noncancerous growths of prostate tissue). Additional triggers for the development of inflammation - the presence of common diseases (diabetes), old age. The main form in which this disease occurs in men is chronic secondary.

Hematogenous infection, when pathogens enter the kidney through the bloodstream, is much less common than outflow disorders. This cause of inflammation is characterized by an acute form of the disease.

Causes of Pyelonephritis in Children

Pyelonephritis in children begins with introduction and reproduction of pathogenic bacteria in the kidneys - most often Escherichia coli. Favorable environments for microbial growth arise for several reasons:

abnormalities in the structure and functioning of the genitourinary system contribute to the improper outflow of urine and its stagnation;
inadequate personal hygiene;
local immunity decreased, bactericidal components urine absent
Pyelonephritis can also develop hematogenously, when the pathogen is transmitted by blood flow from other organs, as occurs in angina, furunculosis, and umbilical wound infection in newborns.

Causes of Acute Pyelonephritis

The primary cause of acute disease is the causative bacterium, combined with the favorable conditions for this bacterium to reproduce. Such conditions include:

hypothermia and colds;
general immunosuppression (including during pregnancy)
metabolic diseases (diabetes);
mechanical obstacles to urine outflow;
presence of foci of infection (with a hematogenous route of spread).

Causes of Chronic Pyelonephritis

The chronic process often results from advanced acute pyelonephritis. As a result, long-term renal tissue inflammation develops, affecting the vessels, pelvis, and parenchyma.

In addition to untreated acute infection, chronic pyelonephritis can be caused by

Urinary outflow obstruction due to stricture (narrowing) of the urinary tract or calculi
the presence of diseases that support chronic inflammatory phenomena in the kidneys - diabetes mellitus, immune system diseases;
inflammatory diseases of neighboring organs and systems - cystitis, urethritis, prostatitis;
chronic intoxication of the body due to bad habits;
anatomic or acquired impaired urinary circulation is reflux.