{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,21]],"date-time":"2025-10-21T00:12:12Z","timestamp":1761005532642,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":17,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,20]],"date-time":"2025-10-20T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760918400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Med."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>Emphysematous pyelonephritis (EPN) is a rare but aggressive infectious disease that lacks specificity in its early stages and tends to progress to life-threatening septic shock in a short period of time. Its diagnosis is based on imaging tests, and treatment requires a combination of staging and risk factors.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Case presentation<\/jats:title><jats:p>We report a case of emphysematous pyelonephritis in a patient with massive emphysema of the left kidney (the longest diameter up to 51 mm) on CT. After multidisciplinary consultation, the patient underwent CT-guided percutaneous drainage combined with targeted antibiotic therapy, and was discharged from the hospital with improvement of the condition. However, relapse of symptoms occurred after 1 day of discharge from the hospital, prompting readmission. After an additional 7-day course of antibiotic therapy, the patient recovered completely with no recurrence during 1-month follow-up.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Staged diagnosis and individualized therapeutic measures are key to the prognosis of this disease. Despite advances in therapeutic techniques, the risk of relapse is still high, and a comprehensive assessment of infection control is recommended for discharge from the hospital, with intensive follow-up to improve the prognosis.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmed.2025.1660972","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,20]],"date-time":"2025-10-20T05:23:10Z","timestamp":1760937790000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Case Report: Massive emphysematous pyelonephritis with short-term relapse"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Tingfei","family":"Jiang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Letian","family":"Meng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tong","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiao","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Liangyu","family":"Yao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Da","family":"Zhong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ninghong","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,20]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1844","DOI":"10.1016\/j.juro.2008.01.019","article-title":"Is percutaneous drainage the new gold standard in the management of emphysematous pyelonephritis? 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