3yr old daughter and urinary reflux surgery?

Question

My daughter is now 3yrs old and potty trained. She was diagnosed with urinary reflux at 1. We have gone through every antibiotic and have had either breakthrough infections or a reaction to the medication. Her urologist wants to do the surgery. We see him day after tomorrow to discuss the surgery. I am totally freaked out!! Anyone have any info?? Also I found out the medication she is on right now Ciproflaxin is not FDA approved for children. Has anyone been prescribed it for their child with reflux? Have you noticed any side affects?

We have now been referred to the Pediatric surgeon for the surgery. She has been taken off of the Cipro and put on Septra, which we have had problems with in the past. We plan to ask the surgeon about any alternatives that she may be able to do instead of or before having to have the surgery. Are there any parents out there who have gone the surgery route? Do you have any suggestions?

Answer 1

My husband and I are considering the surgery for our 3 year old who has reflux, as well. She's never been on Ciproflaxin and she's never had any reactions to the other medications she's taken, currently she's on Septra and has been on Bactrim ( I think that's right) previously. We don't want to keep her on antibiotics for the next 5 years possibly so we are seriously thinking about the outpatient option as opposed to the surgery. I'm assuming by surgery you mean where the doc will make an incision in her bladder and pull the ureters further down into the bladder with about a 3 day hospital stay after wards. Has your doctor discussed the alternative? It's an outpatient procedure and what they basically do is inject this gel like substances into the ureter openings in the bladder. The gel acts like a one way valve and will allow urine to enter the bladder but not go back up to the kidneys. Check out the site deflux.com and it can tell you all about it. I hope this helps, good luck.

Answer 2

My granddaughter has urinary reflux and after numerous doctors visits and x-rays of two years they decided there was no other choice but to do surgery to correct the problem. I do know there are two different kinds of surgery. One is less invasive than the other. The doctor said that the less invasive surgery might not work and they may have to go ahead with the invasive so my son chose the invasive surgery so that would be the end of the bladder and kidney infections. Yes, we were all terrified - she was only 2 1/2 but the surgery went fine. They made an incision under the bikini line about two inches long and repaired the tube. She stayed in the hospital a few days. She was still in pain when she came home but that only lasted for a couple more days.

She is 7 years old now and hasn't had any infections so the surgery was well worth the week of dealing with her pain and ours.

By the way, my middle granddaughter has the same and they are discussing the possibility of surgery. This time we know what to expect and we feel more comfortable and great deal less fearful.

I hope I have helped - just knowing someone who has gone through this and survived sometimes helps. But listen carefully to your choices - it is your decision.

Bless you and your child. I hope the best for her.

Answer 3

Both of our daughters have VUR, and take prophylactic antibiotics.

As you know, they generally prefer NOT to do the surgery if the antibiotics are controlling the problem, as the condition is generally self-correcting. But it sounds like antibiotics AREN'T working for your little one, and I'll bet your pediatrician wouldn't be recommending the surgery if he didn't think it was your best option.

The point of all this, drugs or surgery, is to preserve the functioning of your daughter's kidneys and bladder. That's the end goal. It doesn't matter so much how you get there. I know it's scary--probably scarier for you than your daughter--but it's probably the right thing to do.

Lots of antibiotics aren't FDA approved for children. Tons of them. It's because they haven't done clinical trials on kids. But pediatricians have experience figuring the dosages and they know which drugs kids will tolerate and which ones have side-effects that are deal-breakers, and you can generally trust that your doctor won't prescribe something that's "bad" for your child, even if the FDA hasn't specifically said it's OK in kids.

My kids (almost 3 and almost 1), even though they have relatively high levels of reflux, are still doing OK on Bactrim, so I can't tell you anything about the other options.

(The FDA hasn't said that OTC medications are safe for pregnant or nursing mothers, either. That's why each OB/GYN has his or her own list of drugs they consider acceptable.)

Answer 4

I had this surgery when I was young, I am 25 now I can remember going to the hospital in the morning and that it hurt to go to the bathroom right after the surgery, but I don't remember anything else about the surgery. I had some problems with bladder infections throughout my life but they were all extremely minor. When I grew up and started having sex, I had to learn ways to prevent myself from getting infections, because every time I had intercourse I didn't realize it but I was making an infection worse, and the it spread to my kidneys. But you don't have to worry about that with her for a really long time. I'm pretty sure the surgery will benefit her in the long run. I get side effects from Cipro now as an adult.

Answer 5

Yes my ex boyfriends sister's daughter used Cipro at around that age, 2 or 3 years old, its effective but you need to measure out whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

Answer 6

my son cooper was diagnosed with reflux BEFORE he was born.(beleive it or not, through his ultra sound)
i beleive it was amoxicillan they put him on, because the other antibiotic was too strong and made him vomit. he had the operation when he was 6 months old. he had the surgery done at Yale, and our doctor was incredible. his name is dr. weiss. if you have any fears, and you live in the area at all maybe you could get referred to him, i dont know. he did an incredible job, and now Coop is fine, it appears everything was fixed and now we only have to have one office visit a year.
good luck.

Answer 7

Oh honey I dont know anything about that, but I will pray for your family. I hate when children have to go under the knife. Be Blessed.

Answer 8

Hope she gets better really soon

Answer 9

GOOD LUCK!