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Sepsis and antibiotics
A practice question in the style of the PLAB 1 exam. Choose your answer to see the explanation.
A 64-year-old man with kidney stones has loin pain, a temperature of 39.2 degrees and hypotension. A scan shows an obstructed, dilated kidney. What is the most important additional step besides antibiotics?
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The answer is C: Urgent decompression of the kidney.
An infected obstructed kidney is a surgical emergency. Source control, by nephrostomy or stent, is needed because antibiotics alone will not clear it.
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This question comes from Week 7 of PLAB Vault: Infection and cancer care. That week has 124 more exam-style questions like it, 5 short lessons and 154 flashcards. The course starts free with Week 1 and reaches this topic in week 7, as part of a four-month plan with full mock exams along the way.
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