Normal renal growth in children with myelodysplasia.

Optimum urologic management of children with myelodysplasia includes periodic assessment of upper tract anatomy and renal growth. To investigate the perception that many children with spina bifida but without a history of intrinsic renal disease have small kidneys when compared with age-matched standard renal growth charts, 212 children with spina bifida were studied retrospectively, measuring renal length on excretory urograms. Patients with known vesicoureteric reflux of grade 2 or greater, congenital renal anomalies, hydronephrosis, renal scarring, or urinary diversion were excluded. For 95 patients aged 2 days to 19 days, 249 urograms were available for evaluation. Renal lengths were measured on the supine 5-min urogram. Mean values and standard deviations were calculated for each age group. Mean renal length for each age group fell below the mean of the standard curves devised by Hodson and Currarino, with increasing deviation from the mean with age.