Frequency of Vesicoureteral Reflux in Children having Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections

Objective: Repeated urinary tract infections are significantly related to anatomical abnormalities of urinary tract. Vesicoureteral reflux is quite common, under diagnosed anatomical abnormality, leads to renal scarring and chronic kidney disease. The objective of the study was to determine the frequency of vesicoureteral reflux in children having repeated urinary tract infections. Methods: It is cross sectional survey conducted in department of Pediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital & Institute of Child Health, Lahore, spanning from 20-5-2014 to 19-11-2014, using non-probability purposive sampling, a total of 140 patients included. Each child was screened and followed with repeated urinary tract infections for frequency of vesicoureteral reflux by detailed clinical examination and relevant investigation as defined in operational definition. To avoid any controversy, all the findings of UTI & vesicoureteral reflux was assessed by a single consultant. Data was managed using SPSS version 20. Results: In this study the mean age of all patients was 5.64±2.35 years. There were 42 (30%) males and 98(70%) females in this study with male to female ration 1:233. The mean number of episodes of urinary tract infections was 5.82±1.95 per years. Frequency of vesicoureteral reflux in these patients was seen in 35(25%) of the patients. When we stratified the data over age, gender and number of episodes of urinary tract infection we found significant association of vesicoureteral reflux with age groups only (p-value < 0.05) while no association between vesicoureteral reflux versus gender and number of episodes of urinary tract infection (pvalue > 0.05). Conclusion: We found significant correlation between vesicoureteral reflux and repeated urinary tract infections. Cases with repeated urinary tract infections should be investigated thoroughly to address underlying cause, in order to prevent renal damage and long-term complications.