Symptoms:

Acute or emergency symptoms may include:

• Abdominal pain
• Abdominal swelling
• Back pain
• Blood in the urine
• Decreased alertness
  • Coma
  • Drowsiness, lethargy
• Decreased urine output
• Fever
• Flank pain, severe
• Increased heart rate
• Inability to urinate
• Nausea, vomiting
• Pale skin
• Skin cool to touch
• Sweating

Chronic symptoms:

• Constipation (with toxic injury, lead poisoning)
• Irritability
• Weight loss

If only one kidney is affected, there may be no symptoms, because the second (healthy) kidney functions well enough for normal health.

Signs and tests:

The health care provider may find the source of the injury by looking at your:

• History of physical injury
• Exposure to toxic substances
• Recent infections or illness

Signs may include:

• Excess bleeding (hemorrhage)
• Extreme tenderness over the kidney
• Shock, including rapid heart rate or falling blood pressure
• Signs of kidney failure

Tests that may be done include:

• Abdominal CT scan
• Abdominal MRI
• Angiography of the kidney artery or vein
• Blood electrolytes
• Blood tests to look for toxic substances
• Complete blood count (CBC)
• Intravenous pyelogram (IVP)
• Kidney x-ray
• Renal scan
• Urinalysis