Significant improvement in hydronephrosis with pyeloplasty prior to 3 months of age in patients with antenatal severe hydronephrosis

Pyeloplasty is the definitive management of ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO). One of the challenging questions is when to perform pyeloplasty. We studied if improvement post-pyeloplasty in the first 3 months of life could show greater improvement in hydronephrosis than surgery at an older age.

Patients with postnatally diagnosed UPJO and underwent pyeloplasty in the first year of life were retrospectively reviewed. We excluded patients with concomitant vesicoureteral reflux, and patients who had pyeloplasty because of UTI or missed follow-up. Patients were divided into two groups, according to the age at pyeloplasty, before and after the age of 3 months. We collected patients’ demographics, anteroposterior diameter of the renal pelvis (APD), SFU grade, renogram data, perioperative data (surgery duration, hospital stay, and ureteral stent duration) and postoperative ultrasound changes. The percentage of change of APD (Δ%APD) was calculatedusing the formula: Δ%APD = [ (initial APD-last APD)/initial APD] *100.

We included 90 patients (93 renal units). 36 patients had pyeloplasty during the first 3 months of life and 57 patients at 3 -12 months. Patients’ characteristics were similar in both groups except APD which was higher when pyeloplasty was done < 3 months of age (p = 0.02). Both groups had comparable perioperative parameters. After almost similar follow-up period of both groups. The Δ%APD was 58% when pyeloplasty was done < 3 months compared to 33% when was performed > 3 months (p = 0.009). Using Kaplan–Meier analysis, APD significantly improved when pyeloplasty was performed before the age of 3 months (p = 0.001).

Early pyeloplasty, in the first 3 months of life, showed a significant improvement of APD postoperatively than those had surgery later. It is unclear if this will relate to less loss of renal function yet certainly this would be suspected and feel this finding provides some evidence for early intervention.