Suppuration in the perinephrium is of special importance because of the morbidity and mortality rates associated with the lesion. The disease is not uncommon. In the twenty-eight years since the first patient was admitted to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 66 patients have been treated who were found to have perinephric abscess either alone or complicating other diseases. In addition, there were 6 other patients in whom the signs and the symptoms were most suggestive of perinephric abscess. They recovered without operation, however, and the diagnosis was consequently never proved.
The difficulties of diagnosis and the problems of treatment in patients ill because of perinephric abscess have been emphasized repeatedly in the literature.1
It was thought, therefore, that analysis of the cases to be described would yield data to help solve the many problems presented by infection in the perinephrium.
DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY听
Perinephric abscess is a suppurative inflammatory