Journal Reviews
Prenatal spina bifida repair – does it have urological benefits in the longer term?
At present, I have one patient under my care who underwent prenatal closure of his spina bifida defect. Only with time, will we be able to determine whether this intervention has been of benefit for him from a urological standpoint....
What should we do with the incidentally detected renal cyst in a child?
The introduction of routine prenatal screening in the early 1980s resulted in paediatric urologists being confronted with the dilemma of what to do with antenatally-detected urinary tract dilatation, many of whom, we now know, do not require long-term surveillance or...
Supranormal function on MAG-3 – what is its significance and how to predict?
Differential renal function (DRF) on MAG-3 scans is typically used in patients with pelvic ureteric junction obstruction (PUJ obstruction). Supranormal DRF is when the kidney with PUJO has higher DRF than the normal contralateral kidney. The authors in this study...
Early complications following ambulatory hypospadias repair
Most hypospadias repairs are undertaken on a day case ambulatory basis. Roth et al. have studied clinically significant events occurring within 30 days of operation. Data was obtained from the Paediatric Health Information System (PHIS), an administrative database that contains...
Evidence-based treatment of MCDK: a systematic review
The authors of this systematic review have not only aimed to establish the incidence of hypertension associated with a multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK) but have also tried to determine the malignancy risk associated with an MCDK and assess the rate...
Psychosocial and sexual outcomes after surgery for proximal hypospadias
Andersson et al. report the psychosocial and sexual outcomes for adolescents treated previously for proximal hypospadias. They hypothesised outcomes would be negatively affected compared to patients with distal hypospadias or age-matched controls (Swedish population registry). Participants answered a web-based questionnaire...
Ipsilateral ureteroureterostomy: does function of the obstructed moiety matter?
Upper pole nephrectomy has been the traditional surgical management of children with poorly functioning upper pole moieties in duplex renal collecting systems having ureteral ectopia and ureterocele. However, ablative surgery confers a risk of functional loss to the remnant moiety...
Comparing treatment modalities for transplant kidney VUR in the paediatric population
The management of Transplant kidney vesicoureteral reflux in the paediatric population is a heavily debated issue and Deflux® injection to manage VUR is both widely described in the literature and commonly practised. In this paper, these authors have put forth...
Does stable or decreasing hydronephrosis on ultrasound lead to stable or improved function on diuretic renography?
Antenatal hydronephrosis is noted in approximately 1% of all pregnancies. Persistent renal obstruction may lead to progressive loss of renal function. Renal ultrasound (USS) is the preferred modality for diagnosis and monitoring of paediatric hydronephrosis as it is non-invasive, non-ionising,...
Endoscopic injection of bulking agent for recurrent paediatric epididymitis
Paediatric recurrent epididymitis is frequently observed in several urogenital conditions, and may result in deterioration of long-term fertility. The management of recurrent epididymitis is still a therapeutic challenge for paediatric urologists, and as yet there is no consensus for treatment....
Redo orchidopexy
Cryptorchidism, or the undescended testis, is perhaps the most common genital anomaly in males. Historical success rates are approximately 90% depending on the preoperative location and technique used. Iatrogenic cryptorchidism can also occur in up to 2% of cases following...
Should we let sleeping children lie?
Alarm therapy (AT) is a first line-treatment for nocturnal enuresis (NE) conditioning the child to wake in response to an auditory stimulus when wetting begins. It is currently unclear whether waking children and guiding them to urinate when the alarm...
