Follow-up of renal morphology and growth of 141 children operated for vesicoureteral reflux: a retrospective computerized study.

This study relates the postoperative evolution after ureterovesical reimplantation for vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) in 141 children who were ten years old or younger at the time of surgery. Renal growth and morphology were evaluated 2 and 5 years after surgery. We estimated renal growth by measuring the ratio of the bipolar parenchymal thickness to the total length of the kidney. We noticed that whatever the degree of reflux might have been, most of the kidneys partially or totally compensated for their growth failure. This growth resumption required many years to be completed. Surgical correction of VUR had favorable consequences on the radiologic aspect of pyelonephritic scars only on some of the kidneys: in these cases, the child's age appeared to be the only factor that had a statistical importance affecting the postoperative evolution of pyelonephritic scarring: the younger the children were at the time of surgery, the better the results obtained.