UTI Complications

When treated properly, urinary tract infections very rarely lead to complication. But when left untreated, a UTI can be life threatening.

If untreated, lower urinary tract infections can advances to the upper urinary tract and develops complications. Symptoms that indicate upper UTI (e.g., pyelonephritis) in adults include the following:
    * Chills
    * High fever
    * Nausea
    * Pain under the ribs
    * Vomiting
If untreated in time, pyelonephritis could permanently damage the kidneys.

Younger children and older adults are at the greatest risk of kidney damage due to urinary tract infections. Because their symptoms may often mistakenly diagnoses as some other condition.

Pregnant women who had urinary tract infection may have a risk of delivering low birth weight or premature infants.

UTI can cause significant impairment of the quality of life during symptom periods, and affect social function, vitality, and emotional well-being.

Obstruction and Widespread Infection - Severe upper urinary tract infections may cause obstruction that results in widespread infection and even life-threatening. Patients who develop UTIs in the hospital are at more risk for such infections than others. In kidney infection that obstructs the ureter, mortality rates is more than 40%. This specific condition should be suspected in people with diabetes who have severe UTIs.

Women with diabetes have more frequent and more severe UTIs than women without it and are more frequently hospitalized for kidney infections. In fact, the most serious, but rare, complications of urinary tract infections (pyelonephritis, widespread infections, abscesses, inflammation of the bladder wall) occur most often in patients with diabetes.

Kidney Damage - In high-risk adults, recurrent UTIs may cause kidneys scar, which over time can develop hypertension and eventual kidney failure. People with frequent UTIs who develop serious kidney disease are likely to have other predisposing diseases or structural abnormalities.