Kidney vs Bladder?

[Sue Pendleton]

Other than the obvious place of main infection, what is the difference in symptoms and treatment between a kidney infection and a bladder infection? How is a kidney infection diagnosed? Thanks much! http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[julran]

I don't know other than when I had my kidney infection a year ago I had a temp of 105, was AD, and when they checked my urine it's white cell count was thru the roof... It also stuck me in the hospital on IV anti-biotics for 5 days... I'm going to watch this and see what the nurse has to say...

One day at a time...

[SCI-Nurse]

Medically, mostly we hedge our bets and talk about Urinary Tract Infections and don't specify the location. Kidney infections (called "Urosepsis") is usually acompanied by fever, chills and and increased white blood cell count. It can deteriorate very quickly and requires urgen medical care usually wiht intravenous antibiotics.

When an infection starts to invade a male's genitalia we can easily recognize that by the swelling and (if he can feel it) pain in his testicles.

But barring external symptoms or serious symptoms like high fever, we can really only guess which part of he urinary system is infected. Usually infections start in the bladder, so that's probably a safe bet for most instances.

Hope this helps.
(RAB)