Evaluation lower urinary tract dysfunction in obese children

Obesity goes to top of today's most common diseases list and is among the most common chronic diseases in childhood defined by World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity constitutes a serious health problem at later ages due to its consequences, threatening children as well as adults. Preventing obesity at early ages is important to avoid the complications that may develop during adulthood. Lower urinary tract dysfunction is the most common voiding problem in childhood. Voiding dysfunction is important as it may cause significant structural damage on urinary system. There are no precise studies on the relationship between the lower urinary tract dysfunction and obesity in childhood. In this study, lower urinary tract dysfunction frequency in obese children has been shown by evaluating uroflowmetry data together with dysfunctional voiding symptom score. 52 overweight children aged 5-18 years with a BMI percentile range between 85-95 according to age-gender, 151 obese children with BMI above 95 percentile and 118 children with BMI within the normal limits (control group) have been included in the study. Dysfunctional voiding symptom scoring (DVSS) and uroflowmetry were performed in all patients. All uroflowmetry curves were classified as normal (bell-shaped) or abnormal (tower-shaped, 'staccato' , 'interrupted', plateau). Patients were evaluated in terms of urinary bladder volume according to the voiding volume in uroflowmetry When the uroflowmetry voiding patterns were evaluated, abnormal voiding patterns have been found to exist more often in obese and overweight group compared to the control group (51%, 44,2% and 23,7%, respectively). Constipation was detected in 33,9% of the control group, 34,6% of the overweight group and 53,2% of the obese group. The cut-off value for dysfunctional voiding symptom score was determined as 7,5 with 71,9% sensitivity and 67,8% specifity. In this study, uroflowmetry data and dysfunctional voiding symptom scoring data of obese children were combined. Baseline evaluation of lower urinary tract dysfunction should always be performed according to the symptom score and clinical findings. Further examinations such as urodynamic study should be performed in patients with clinical suspicion of lower urinary tract dysfunction according to the symptom score and uroflowmetry results and who fail to respond to urotheraphy.