[Treatment of urethral valves with and without valve resection in the 1st year of life].

25 infants of a total of 72 child patients, who were treated between 1967 and 1987 in the Department of Paediatric Surgery of the Paediatric Hospital of the City of Cologne and were suffering from congenital urethral valves, had been transferred to the hospital for in-patient treatment within their first year of life. In accordance with a change in the treatment concept the patient material was divided into two groups: 1. Treated children up to 1978 These patients were subjected to a prolonged transurethral bouginage treatment of the urethra. Valve resection was performed subsequently at an average age of 13 months only. 2. Treated children after 1978 In these children valve resection was performed as soon as possible after birth. These two patient groups were compared with each other. It was found that both the survival times and the long-term renal function results of the children treated after 1978 had markedly improved compared with those treated before 1978, thanks to the modern treatment concept. That is true both for the incidence of secondary correction operations at the upper part of the urinary tract and for the frequency of nephrectomy.