Cost-benefit analysis of ultrasound screening for vesicoureteral reflux in neonates

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The present study on ultrasound screening for urinary tract anomalies in a large number of apparently healthy neonates revealed that hypoplastic kidneys were highly associated with ureteric reflux and that significant ureteric reflux presented with transient pelvic dilation on voiding. The present study effectively identified vesicoureteral reflux in approximately 1% of babies and observed that male babies had ureteric reflux approximately two times as often as females and that renal hypoplasia with reflux was found with an incidence of 1 in 300 boys. These findings strongly suggest that small kidneys often found in male infants who developed urinary infection were almost always associated with congenital hypoplastic kidneys. Recent investigation observed that most of children who required renal replacement therapy had had severe obstructive nephropathy or hypodysplastic kidneys. These severe renal malformations seem efficiently found in fetal ultrasound which is routinely performed by obstetrician. It seems most cost-effective to examine only these babies after birth who are suspected of having renal anomalies on fetal ultrasound.