Posterior urethral valves in patients with trisomy 21: Similar renal outcomes and rates of volitional voiding

Posterior urethral valves (PUV) occur in patients with Down Syndrome (DS) at a rate of 3–4%; far higher than the general population. Our understanding of the relationship between PUVs and DS is in its infancy, with the majority of the literature consisting of case reports. In this study, we present the largest known series of DS patients with PUVs. We hypothesized that patients with DS and PUVs would have worse functional bladder outcomes and renal outcomes when compared to PUV patients without DS. We queried our prospectively managed multi-institutional database of PUV patients from 1990 to 2021. We identified patients with a concomitant diagnosis of DS and PUV. In addition, we performed a systematic review of the literature describing the presentation of children with PUV and DS. Patient demographics, renal outcomes, voiding habits, surgical interventions, and radiologic images were aggregated and analyzed. Out of the 537 patients in our PUV database, we identified 18 patients with a concomitant diagnosis of PUV and DS, as well as 14 patients with a concomitant diagnosis of PUV and DS from the literature. DS and non-DS patients had a similar age at presentation, 31.5 days (2–731) and 17 (4–846), and length of follow up 6.32 years (2–11.2) and 6.98 (1–13). Both groups had similar nadir creatinines DS 0.43 (0.4–0.8), non-DS 0.31 (0.2–0.5) and similar rates of renal failure (DS 11.1% and non-DS 14.5%). With respect to bladder outcomes, a similar percentage of patients were volitionally voiding at last follow up (DS 72.2% and non-DS 72.3%). Our literature review corroborated these findings. Patients with DS and PUV have similar renal outcomes to other PUV patients in terms of renal function, progression to renal failure, and probability of volitional voiding with continence. Given the increased rate of PUVs in the DS population, physicians should have a high index of suspicion for PUV when patients with DS present with voiding dysfunction.