Description

The kidney is held in position by the peritoneum and fatty capsule, the former passing in front of it, and by the blood vessels. Normally the fixation is firm; but when the constitution is enervated, the general muscular system relaxed, ligaments all expressionless, then it is that any and all of the organs have a tendency to gravitate below their normal position, the same as the muscles of the arms, legs, and other parts of the body. If the tonicity is lost--enervated energy below par--they become expressionless. The muscles of the face sag; the tissues on the neck drop down. When there is an accumulation of fat--a large and heavy omentum--or when the bowels are distended a great deal with gas, and constipation is marked by a continuous accumulation, all these intra-abdominal, abnormal conditions have a tendency to drag the kidneys down. In these days of superfluous surgery, there is no attempt made to overcome the sagging tissue other than by operation. It is an excuse for professional laziness. It excuses the profession from thinking out the real cause and then adopting a proper treatment.

Symptoms

There are no symptoms. All the symptoms that cause physicians to explore the abdomen, in palpating to discover either a pus tube or a derangement that will account for the patient's complaint, may be caused by constipation, impaction of the bowels, colitis, chronic appendicitis, indigestion with distention from gas. Certainly there is no symptom that can be positively identified as that of a floating or dislocated kidney. There has been nearly as much professional insanity on the subject of floating kidney as on appendicitis, ovaritis, and ptosis of the various sections of the alimentary canal, because it is often mistaken for constipation. The chief motive actuating the profession in making a diagnosis is to find an excuse for an operation, rather than to find the cause of these various comfort-destroying conditions that have been brought on from bad habits of eating and neglect of the bowels.

Treatment

Treat the patient for what is really the disease. His life should be corrected; his eating should be looked after. The tendency for the generation of gas must be overcome. Constipation certainly is to be got rid of. Colitis must be treated as general catarrh must be treated; in fact, the treatment for general catarrh will correct the colitis. If there is dilation of the stomach, or sagging of the transverse colon, all these conditions can be overcome by proper feeding, proper care of the body, and proper exercise.

With any of these conditions named, including the subject of this chapter, there must be systematic exercise practiced daily. The tensing exercises should be used fully thirty minutes twice a day.

Should the kidney be removed? I have never seen a case that required it. Some cases may require a pad and a bandage to give temporary relief; yet I think that it is not a good thing to educate the patient into crutches, so to speak--something to support. The muscles should be made to support the body. This can be done by exercising enough to bring them back to a normal tone.