What is Reflux Nephropathy?
Reflux means that something goes back the way it has come, instead of travelling onwards. In reflux nephropathy, this means that urine passes back up from the bladder towards the kidneys, instead of coming out of the body (click here for a picture of the bladder, kidneys and drainage tubes). Nephropathy is a medical term for kidney disease. Reflux nephropathy is sometimes also called just reflux , and an older name for the same condition is chronic pyelonephritis , or chronic pyelonephritis with reflux . It is sometimes also called vesico-ureteric reflux . Vesico-ureteric means from the bladder to the ureter (the tube from bladder to kidney).
