Kidney problems in children?!
Question: My three year old son has vesicoureteral reflux. Does any one else have a kid with this? what happened?
Answers: My three year old son has vesicoureteral reflux. Does any one else have a kid with this? what happened?
It depends on how bad it is. Most doctor's using a staging scale (1-5). If it's not very severe ( if it's 1-3) then it most likely won't require intensive treatment. Most kids grow out of it by age 5. Sometimes they will be put on prophylactic antibiotics to prevent kidney infections. If it's a 4 or 5 then surgery is likely. Commonly, doctors will try to put in valves in the ureters so that urine can only flow one way. If that doesn't work, they might create a urinary diversion (like an ileal conduit) in which they remove the bladder completely and make a new bladder (the conduit) out of a 6 to 8 inch piece of the ileus (part of the intestine). They then surgically attach the ureters together and attach them to the section of ileus. The end of the ileus that didn't get attached to the ureters is then pushed through the skin of the abdomen creating a stoma. A bag is attached to the stoma and urine drains out of it. the person getting this procedure will have it for life. That's a drastic intervention, and your son's reflux would have to be really bad.
I personally did not have a child with this, but I took care of a gentlemen yesterday who had this since he was two. he had undergone 26 surgeries. His was really bad. First they did an ileal conduit which worked for a very long time (decades) then his kidneys failed and so he had to have a kidney transplant (only got one kidney). the most recent surgery he had was a nephrostomy which is where they put a tube directly into your kidney to drain the urine into a bag. This is usually temprorary. He had this done because his ureters were blocked and his ileal conduit wasn't functioning properly.
I know this seems scary. But this man had been living with this for YEARS! He is married, has kids, a good job and functions completely normal. His case was an extreme one, and I don't think that they are usually that bad. Just make sure you go to a good urologist and nephrologist. There are so many treatments out there today, and the likelihood is that your son will outgrow this. Best wishes to you and your son.
Hello
My daugther has gastric reflux and met a friend at the hospital who also suffers from kidney reflux. This girl had an operation, but I cant quite remember the name of it.
Im sorry this isn't much help :)