What is Kidney Reflux?
When our daughter Lizzie was diagnosed with Vesicoureteral Reflux (aka Kidney Reflux) we had no idea what that meant. I had never even heard of kidney reflux and I certainly didn’t understand all that the doctor was telling me. Our 6 week old daughter had been rushed to the Hospital with a high fever and had been put through a number of tests. Now they were telling us that she had this condition called reflux and that it would probably require surgery somewhere down the line. In what seemed like a moment, our lives were changed forever. We now knew what was wrong with our little girl, but we still had no idea what that meant or what we could do to fix it. And so our journey began.
Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR) is also known as kidney reflux, or bladder reflux. There are two kinds of reflux, primary and secondary. Primary VUR affects 90% of the children that are diagnosed with reflux. In Primary VUR, children are born with a defect in the ureterovesical junction (UVJ valve). This basically means that there is a valve where the ureter enters the bladder, and that valve is not doing its job correctly. Because of this defect, there is an abnormal flow of urine from the bladder back up into the kidneys, where it can cause permanent damage. Secondary VUR has the same abnormal flow of urine, but instead of being caused by a defect in the UVJ valve, it is caused by a secondary, underlying condition such as nuerogenic bladder, immunity disorder, or other medical condition. With secondary VUR, the underlying condition must be treated to correct the reflux.
Reflux by itself is not dangerous. The danger comes when reflux is coupled with an infection in the urinary tract. For unknown reasons, children with reflux often have a much higher incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI). When a child with reflux develops a UTI, the infected urine moves upward into the kidneys where it can cause the kidneys to become infected (pyelonephritis). Infection in the kidneys can cause renal scarring, and damage to the kidneys, which can eventually lead to renal failure if not treated.
KidneyReflux can affect only one kidney or both. If only one kidney is affected, it is called unilateral reflux and when both kidneys are infected it is called bilateral reflux. In some cases, like the case of our daughter’s, there can be duplicated ureters (or extra ureters). In these cases, 1 or all of the ureters can be affected, and each ureter is given a grade. These grades are based on how severely each individual ureter is affected.
What is Kidney Reflux?
How is Reflux Graded?
Symptoms of Reflux
Testing for Reflux
Treatment for Reflux