Objective: To report a rare case of renoureteral colic in a patient with a solitary left kidney, due to fibrosis around the renal pelvis and ureter from metastatic lobular carcinoma of the breast.
Methods/results: A 45-year-old patient consulted at the emergency services for pain in the left renal fossa that irradiated to the genital organs. Patient evaluation showed lid edema and oliguria. An abdominal ultrasound scan demonstrated left hydronephrosis. The cause of the obstruction could not be determined by imaging techniques. Exploratory lumbotomy was performed and the pelvis and ureter were released from the fibrotic covering. The histological analysis showed infiltration of the ureteral adventitia arising from lobular breast carcinoma.
Conclusions: Retroperitoneal metastases that cause ureteral obstruction usually occur two years following diagnosis of the primary tumor. This is one of the few cases of ureteral obstruction from metastatic lobular carcinoma of the breast reported in the literature. Unlike the other cases, however, our patient showed a complicated genitourinary malformation.