Internal aspects of urinary tract infection and stones

1. Big picture

This topic connects two common nephrology/urology problems:

Urinary tract infection
   ↓
cystitis / pyelonephritis / urosepsis

Urinary stones
   ↓
renal colic / obstruction / infection / AKI

The most dangerous overlap is:

Stone + obstruction + infection
        ↓
infected obstructed kidney / pyonephrosis
        ↓
urosepsis
        ↓
urgent antibiotics + urgent decompression

For the state exam, the key is not to list all antibiotics or operations, but to recognize uncomplicated vs complicated infection, lower vs upper UTI, renal colic vs infected obstruction, and metabolic prevention of recurrent stones.

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