Occurrence of vesicoureteral reflux in children

Aim: The reported low occurrence of vesicoureteral reflux in the general population seems implausible. We wanted to test the hypothesis that reflux is more common and more independent of urinary-tract infection than has previously been thought.

Methods: We tested our hypothesis by analysing the characteristics of 406 consecutive children aged <5years who had been referred for consultation because of urinary-tract infection. Using data on their urine samples, we evaluated the reliability of the urinary-tract infection diagnosis and analysed the frequencies of vesicoureteral reflux and abnormal ultrasound findings in three reliability groups (A: certain urinary-tract infection, B: possible and C: improbable).

Results: The occurrence of reflux was the same irrespective of the diagnostic reliability of urinary-tract infection (A: 98/276 [36%] versus B: 13/46 [28%] versus C: 9/25 [36%]). Most of the abnormal ultrasound findings (58/71, 80%) were found among patients with a certain diagnosis (Group A).

Conclusion: We suggest that vesicoureteral reflux is more common in children even without urinary-tract infection than has been thought previously. The guidelines recommending a search for reflux by means of voiding cystourethrography should be reconsidered.