Hypertension and multicystic kidney.

The optimal management of the asymptomatic patient with a multicystic kidney remains a dilemma. The risk of nephrectomy in a neonate or infant with this lesion is small and the morbidity is minimal. The alternative to elective nephrectomy is life-long follow-up with blood pressure determinations, beginning in infancy. We report herein two infants with multicystic kidney (MCK) in whom hypertension was cured by its removal. Since accurate blood pressure measurements are relatively difficult to obtain in infants and since periodic long-term follow-up is difficult in the best of circumstances, we are concerned that hypertension caused by a retained MCK goes undiagnosed perhaps more frequently than a review of the current literature suggests. Such hypertension may result in contralateral renal damage and arteriosclerosis, so that later removal of the MCK may not have a beneficial effect on the elevated blood pressure.