Trench nephritis

Trench nephritis
Other namesWar nephritis[1]
Specialty
SymptomsAlbuminuria, high blood pressure, swelling, casts in urine, difficulty breathing and bronchitis.[2]
Risk factorsTrench warfare
PrognosisLow mortality, long recovery, frequent relapses

Trench nephritis, also known as war nephritis, is a kidney infection, first recognised by medical officers as a new disease during the early part of the First World War and distinguished from the then-understood acute nephritis by also having bronchitis and frequent relapses. Trench nephritis was the major kidney problem of the war. The cause was not established at the time, treatments were ineffective, and the condition led to 35,000 British and 2,000 American casualties.

The term trench nephritis was coined by Nathan Raw and was first reported in the British Medical Journal in 1915 as affecting soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force in Flanders. Soldiers presented with sudden-onset albuminuria, casts in urine, high blood pressure, swelling of legs or face, headache, sore throat and difficulty breathing and bronchitis. Pathology suggested an underlying inflammation of the small blood vessels of the kidneys.

Later evidence showed that trench nephritis may have been due to hantavirus, carried by rodents.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Atenstaedt2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Maher1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).