Laser ablation in the management of obstructive uropathy in neonates

Endoscopic management of posterior urethral valves and congenital ureteroceles is the current standard to relieve the obstruction. While the most commonly used techniques involve cystoscopic incision with cold knife or electrosurgery, an alternative is to ablate the obstructive tissue with laser energy. With increasing prenatal diagnoses, there has been an increasing shift in the timing of intervention toward earlier periods. The literature contains only two reports of laser ablation in neonates for these disease entities.

A case series was conducted by retrospectively reviewing our surgical database for all consecutive infants <28 days old (i.e., neonates) diagnosed in utero with obstructive uropathy and with postnatal imaging consistent with either urethral valves (anterior or posterior) or ureterocele. Holmium: yttrium aluminum-garnet (Ho:YAG) laser ablation was used as the exclusive modality of endoscopic management during the study period. All patients were followed with voiding cystourethrogram and renal/bladder ultrasounds postoperatively.

Seventeen neonates underwent retrograde transurethral laser ablation procedures at a median age of 7 days (range 3-27). There were nine cases of urethral valve ablation (seven posterior, two anterior) and eight ureterocele ablations. Median operative time was 23 minutes (range 18-33). There were no intraoperative complications or reoperative procedures required for any case. All patients voided after postoperative catheter removal, and no patient had evidence of residual valve tissue or urethral stricture at mean follow-up of 10.1 months. All patients with ureterocele demonstrated partial or complete decompression of the ureterocele and improvement in hydroureteronephrosis at 3 months.

Ho:YAG laser ablation appears safe, effective, and efficient for the management of urethral valves and ureteroceles in the neonatal period. With a continuing trend toward early definitive intervention for these conditions, laser ablation remains an important alternative to electrosurgery in this population.