Risks of vesicoureteric reflux in the transplanted kidney.

The risk to the transplanted kidney of vesicoureteric reflux was evaluated in 150 consecutive first cadaveric renal allografts surviving for over three months. Of the 119 (79 per cent) allografts studied by micturating cystography 29 (24 per cent) were shown to reflux. The presence of reflux was associated with urine leakage and reoperation, and with ureteric insertion involving a short intramural tunnel. Graft failure (graft nephrectomy or death from renal failure) occurred in 14 of 29 refluxing grafts as compared to 14 failures in 90 nonrefluxing grafts (P less than 0.01). Graft failure in the refluxing group was typically slow, and commonly associated with proteinuria, microscopic hematuria, hypertension and a biopsy appearance of mesangiocapillary glomerular change. Urinary infection, though frequent (69 per cent), was not more common in the group with than in that without reflux. Vesicoureteric reflux is an important cause of late renal-graft failure.