A Case of Ureterocele in an Infant

URETEROCELE iS well known to genito-urinary surgeons, but it has attracted very little attention from pathologists or biologists. The usual description is that the primary condition is a pinhole ureteric orifice, with a dilated ureter above and a cystic projection into the bladder below, with the ureteric orifice on the surface of the cyst. Cystoscopically, the swelling expands and collapses according to the pressure in the bladder. A certain amount of movement in the cyst wall has been observed, and if this is a ureteric movement, it would seen to indicate that ureteric muscle is present in the wall. It may be unilateral or bilateral, and is often discovered accidentally, or mild obstructive renal symptoms have been present in some cases. It is treated by intravesical diathermy destruction of the wall. The size of the ureterocele varies, a common size is about an inch diameter. Occasionally the cystic swelling in the female has prolapsed through the urethra and appeared on the surface. A case of this type was described in the British Journal of Surgery (Volume 29), by Ian McPherson. This case was a female, aged 27. The case which we report is a young female infant with a severe congenital anomaly of the hand. This associated deformity seems to us to emphasize the congenital nature of this rare condition. It is worthy of note that the condition ureterocele is not mentioned in Thompson Walker's Genito-urinary Surgery, 1946, or in Hamilton, Boyd, and Mossman's Human Embryology, 1947.