A 78-year-old man presents with three days of inability to pass urine and a painful lower abdomen, on a background of months of a poor stream and nocturia. A urethral catheter drains 1.8 L immediately. Blood tests taken before catheterisation show creatinine 410 µmol/L (60–110), urea 31 mmol/L, potassium 5.4 mmol/L, and an ultrasound shows bilateral hydronephrosis. Over the next four hours he passes 1.6 L of dilute urine.
Which one of the following is the most important complication to anticipate over the next 24 hours?
Keep going with ten more like this one.
Practise moreMore from Renal, Urology and Electrolytes
See allA 63-year-old man who has smoked for 40 years and worked for 20 years in a tyre factory reports that on two occasions in the last month his urine has been brigh…
Clinical rotations · common
A 74-year-old man is on day 2 after an emergency Hartmann procedure for perforated diverticulitis. He takes spironolactone and perindopril for heart failure. He…
Pre-internship · common
A 24-year-old man presents with dark brown urine that began the day after the onset of a sore throat. He recalls two similar episodes in the past two years, eac…
Clinical rotations · middle twist
A 68-year-old woman with recently diagnosed small cell lung cancer is brought in after a generalised tonic-clonic seizure at home. Over three days she has becom…
Pre-internship · middle twist
A 72-year-old woman with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma presents with confusion, constipation and weakness. Her serum calcium is 4.18 mmol/L (2.10–2.60), crea…
Clinical rotations · middle twist