All issues > Volume 47(12); 2004

Clinical Lecture

Korean J Pediatr. 2004;47(12):1255-1261. Published online December 15, 2004.

Hematuria in Children

Ja Wook JW Koo¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Sanggye Paik Hospital, College of Medicine, Inje University, Seoul, Korea

Correspondence Ja Wook JW Koo ,Email: koojw9@sanggyepaik.ac.kr

Abstract

The detection of even microscopic amounts of blood in a child's urine, whether accompanied by symptoms or asymptomatic, alarms the patient, parents, and physician, and often prompts the performance of many laboratory studies. Hematuria is one of the most important signs of renal or bladder disease, but proteinuria is a more important diagnostic and prognostic finding, except in the case of calculi or malignancies. Hematuria is almost never a cause of anemia. Primary care physicians frequently encounter children with hematuria. Among children presenting to a pediatric emergency clinic, gross hematuria was found an incidence of 1.3 per 1000. Microscopic hematuria in children is much more common, with a prevalence rate between 1 and 4%. The pediatricians should ensure that serious conditions are not overlooked, while avoiding the performance of unnecessary and often expensive laboratory studies, and provide guidelines for additional studies if there is a change in the child's course. This article provides a stepwise approach to the evaluation and management of hematuria in a child.

Keywords :Hematuria, Child