Temporary vesicostomy in pediatrics: What are the potential predictors of functional and morphological improvement of the upper urinary tract?

INTRODUCTION: Vesicostomy is a simple, well-tolerated, and reversible procedure with few complications that safeguards upper urinary tract (UUT), decreases VUR grade, decreases UTI, and preserves renal function and should be considered in patients with PUV who have undergone prior valve ablation and bladder function not improved, and in myelodysplastic children that do not respond to catheter drainage [1-4]. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the temporary vesicostomy as a safeguard of the UUT in children with bladder outlet obstruction, bladder dysfunction, and high-grade VUR with sepsis and assessed the possible predictors of the UUT's morphological and functional improvement since these have been rarely explored in previous reviews. STUDY DESIGN: We evaluated the outcome and complications of temporary vesicostomy who were operated on 69 children at our center from 2014 to 2019. RESULT: There were 63 (91.3%) boys and 6 (8.7%) girls who underwent vesicostomy at a mean age of 15.38 ± 2.74 months old. Twenty-nine cases (42%) were diagnosed as primary VUR, 23 (33.3%) had posterior urethral valve (PUV), and 5 (7.2%) had voiding dysfunction, while 12 (17.4%) were neurogenic bladder. Twenty-five (36.2%) patients were diagnosed prenatally and the remainder (44, 63.8%) postnatally. All patients were evaluated at least one year postoperatively. UTI was diagnosed in all cases before vesicostomy; 47 (68.1%) had a single episode of UTI and 22 (31.9%) had recurrent episodes of UTI. Mean serum creatinine was 1.75 ± 0.13 (0.7-4.8) mg/dl. Serum creatinine and the rate of UTI significantly improved (p-value <0.01). Seven (10.1%) cases were complicated with prolapse, 8 (11.6%) with stenosis, and 10 (14.5%) with peristomal dermatitis, all of them were males. DISCUSSION: About 75.4% of cases developed morphological improvement, while 24.6% of cases not improved (p-value = 0.0001). Improvement or stability of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was seen in 84.1%, while 15.9% deteriorated GFR (p-value = 0.0001). This deterioration is associated with prenatal renal dysplasia. Age less than one year, abdominal swelling, severe HUN, grade V VUR and recurrent UTI before vesicostomy all independently affect functional improvement after vesicostomy. CONCLUSION: Vesicostomy is a simple, reversible, and well-tolerated surgery with few complications that is indicated in children with bladder outlet obstruction, bladder dysfunction, and high-grade VUR to protect UUT, improve renal function, decrease VUR, hydronephrosis, and febrile UTI. Age less than one year, abdominal swelling, severe HUN, grade V VUR and recurrent UTI before vesicostomy all were predictors that independently affect morphological and functional outcomes after vesicostomy.

Endopyelotomy versus redo pyeoloplasty for management of failed pyeloplasty in children: A single center experience.

PURPOSE: We compared endopyelotomy to redo pyeloplasty for the treatment of failed pyeloplasty in children to identify factors that may have an impact on outcome and favor one procedure over the other. METHODS: Of 43 patients with recurrent UPJO, EP was performed in 27 and RP was performed in 16. Age, gender, side, presentation of secondary UPJO, hospital stay, complications and success rates were compared. Success was defined as radiographic relief of obstruction as determined by ultrasound or diuretic renography at latest follow-up. RESULTS: Mean (Range) patient age was 7.2 years (range 6 months to 17 years) in EP (group 1) while 7.4 (range 6 months to 17 years) in RP (group 2). EP technique consisted of retrograde cold-knife in 17 patients, retrograde holmium laser in 8 and antegrade cold-knife in 2. RP was performed in 16 patients. All the patients with failed EP had a stricture greater than 15 mm. Mean length of the narrowed ureteral segment was 17.8 mm in the failed EP group vs 10 mm in the successful group (p < 0.001). Mean Hospital stay was 1 day for the EP group and 5 days for the RP group (p < 0.001). Mean follow-up was 17 months (range 12 to 43) after EP and 21 months (12 to 51) after RP. There was no statistical significance between both groups regarding the postoperative degree of hydronephrosis, parenchymal thickness, split renal functions and renal drainage. The overall success was (86%); the success was nonsignificantly higher in RP (93.8%) vs (81.5%) in EP. CONCLUSION: In selected children, retrograde endopyelotomy is safe and may give comparable short-term outcomes as open redo pyeloplasty for correction of secondary UPJO after failed pyeloplasty. Narrowed ureteral segment greater than 15 mm and preoperative grade 4 hydronephrosis were factors significantly associated with a poor outcome after EP. A LEVEL-OF-EVIDENCE RATING FOR CLASSIFYING STUDY QUALITY: LEVEL III Retrospective comparative study.