Prenatal and postnatal urologic emergencies

There are few true urologic emergencies. The object of this chapter is to cover the practical management of urgent consultations from the antenatal period through childhood. This includes a discussion of abdominal masses and intraoperative consultations. Several factors have impacted the identification and management of fetuses and children with urologically related anomalies. One of the most important factors has been the ability to identify urologic problems during fetal development. This has occurred because of increasingly accurate imaging, genetic screening, and the active participation of pediatric urologists in a multidisciplinary approach to urologic problems. As technology and genetic understanding continue to advance, the frequency with which diseases are identified in the prenatal period will continue to increase.