Congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract form a spectrum of congenital structural disorders that are generally known under the term CAKUT. The term CAKUT was introduced 20 years ago and has been used extensively in literature since. Prof. Woolf has made a plea for abandoning this term in his “case for the prosecution.” Here, I advocate for the continued use of CAKUT as an umbrella term for these related congenital kidney and urinary tract abnormalities. I explain why the term CAKUT accurately and usefully defines this group of related structural disorders with prenatal origin and why it makes sense to continue grouping these disorders given accumulating evidence for shared etiology of CAKUT phenotypes and the importance of grouping CAKUT phenotypes in genetic counseling.

肾脏和泌尿道的先天性异常形成了一系列先天性结构障碍，通常称为 CAKUT。CAKUT 一词是在 20 年前引入的，此后一直在文献中广泛使用。伍尔夫教授在他的“起诉案件”中请求放弃这个词。在这里，我提倡继续使用 CAKUT 作为这些相关的先天性肾脏和泌尿道异常的总称。我解释了为什么 CAKUT 一词准确和有用地定义了这组具有产前起源的相关结构障碍，以及为什么继续对这些障碍进行分组是有意义的，因为积累了 CAKUT 表型的共同病因学证据以及在遗传咨询中对 CAKUT 表型进行分组的重要性。