It has often surprised me that in order to study the subject of obstructive uropathy, it is necessary to search through various sections of several urological, surgical and radiological textbooks rather than turn to one work on the subject. It is also true that, even now, many descriptions tend to concentrate on the causative conditions rather than their relationship to the proximal outflow tract, in a way which is predominantly structural and anatomical rather than functional and urodynamic. The subject of obstructive uropathy has changed radically in recent years. Inspired research from...