Urinary Reflux
Posted by Babies - 14/01/09 at 06:01 amUrinary Reflux
In some infants, while urinating, the urine flows in a backward direction to the kidney from the urinary bladder. This phenomenon is known as urinary reflux. In this way germs reaches the kidney. This may cause infection in the urinary tract.
Due to repeated occurrence of infection, the kidney may be scarred. Urinary reflux occurs in almost 30 percent of the babies. It does not mean that the baby has a distorted urinary tract. But if the infection repeats a number of times within small gaps at a very early age, then there may be problem in the urinary tract and the baby should be taken to the doctor.
Certain special tests such as ultrasound of kidneys and bladder, kidney scan, intravenous pyelogram, bladder x- ray etc are performed to make sure whether there is any problem in the urinary tract. The x-rays are done to scrutinise the functioning of the urethra when it gets filled and when it gets emptied, to understand whether the child has reflux when it urinates.
The types of tests depends on the age of the child its sex, the severity of the infection and the number of times of occurrence of the same. Sometimes, reflux gets cured automatically. Otherwise, the child is to be treated with antibiotics as per the doctors’ prescription.
In some cases reflux does not get cured by antibiotics and repeated infection causes scaring of the kidney, or the child cannot be given antibiotics, in such cases surgery is required.
