Professor Doron Schwartzhead of the nephrology and dialysis department
Treatment of chronic pyelonephritis in clinics in Israel is based on the use of the most modern approaches. Depending on the specifics of the clinical picture, courses of medication may be applied, and surgical interventions of varying complexity may also be performed.
When consulting specialists at the Top Ichilov Medical Center, foreign patients first undergo extensive diagnostics using high-precision equipment. The examination takes only three to four days, after which doctors develop a treatment program. This may include courses of modern antibiotics, endoscopic surgeries, stent implantation in the urethra, percutaneous nephrostomy, and various types of urethral reimplantation.
How Does Treatment at Top Ichilov Proceed?
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Current Therapy Methods
Therapy may pursue several goals, depending on the clinical picture — correcting urinary tract obstruction, combating infections, and comprehensive normalization of urinary system functions.
If there is no urinary tract obstruction and the disease is primarily characterized by frequent urinary tract infections, patients undergo courses of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Concurrently, accompanying symptoms are managed — medications to lower blood pressure, anti-inflammatory agents, antiplatelet drugs, and anticoagulants are prescribed. Israeli nephrologists select comprehensive therapy protocols that ensure the restoration and preservation of kidney functions in full.
In patients with urinary tract obstruction, urine flow is restored through minimally invasive surgical intervention — percutaneous nephrostomy (an artificial pathway is created for urine drainage from the kidneys). For the same purpose, ureteral catheterization or urethral stenting may be performed. The main goal of these procedures is to normalize urine flow from the kidney-pelvic complex to prevent complications.
In some cases, laparoscopic and open surgeries may be performed — nephrectomy, urethral reimplantation (classical, minimally invasive, robot-assisted). Generally, surgical interventions are performed only as a last resort when no conservative treatment methods yield the desired results. Laparoscopic interventions have several advantages over classical surgeries — they minimize postoperative pain syndrome, reduce the risk of complications, and accelerate patient rehabilitation time.
Diagnostics
Typically, the examination begins on the very first day of your stay in the country and lasts up to four days. During this time, you will undergo a full range of diagnostic procedures and receive a conclusion with a recommended treatment plan. The main task of diagnostics is to determine the exact type of disease and differentiate it from pathologies with similar external manifestations.
Consultation
At the airport, you will meet your coordinator — a staff member from the hospital's international department, who is assigned to you personally and will translate your medical documents, coordinate doctors, and assist with everyday matters. The coordinator will take you to the hotel where you will temporarily stay while undergoing diagnostics and then take you to the clinic for a nephrologist consultation. The nephrologist will review your medical history and order a series of tests.
Investigations
The next day, the main set of investigations is conducted. The specific types of diagnostics assigned to you depend on the specifics of the clinical picture.
- Urine analysis for nitrites, white blood cells, and other signs of infection.
- Complete blood count.
- Microbiological examination of urine (culture growth).
- Spiral computed tomography.
- Urography.
- Urodynamic tests.
- Doppler ultrasound.
- Kidney scintigraphy.
- Radionuclide scanning using technetium-99 isotopes.
Consultation Board
After all investigations are completed, a group of specialists forms a medical commission — a consultation board. The doctors on the board collectively discuss the investigation data and select a treatment program that aligns with modern views on the therapy of this disease.
According to Israeli law, patients, including foreigners, have the full right to access any information regarding their diagnosis and the selected treatment plan. Therefore, the patient may attend the medical consultation board's meeting and express their opinion regarding the selected treatment options.
Diagnostic Procedures
- Computed tomography
- X-ray
- Ultrasound
Cost of Treatment for Chronic Pyelonephritis in Israel
The affordable cost of treatment for chronic pyelonephritis in Israel is a distinctive feature of local medicine. Thus, the cost of similar diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in American, Canadian, or Western European clinics is higher than in Israeli ones by at least 30-35%. Much of this fact is why many hundreds of foreign patients with kidney diseases — citizens of the USA, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, etc. — turn to Israeli clinics every year.