Summary—To assess the effectiveness of the surgical correction of vesico‐ureteric reflux, current renal function was determined in 56 children with scarred kidneys who had undergone ureteric reimplantation between 1978 and 1983. The children were aged between 2 and 15 years, had no coexisting urological disease and a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of<90ml/min/1.73m2. In the 32 patients who had bilateral reimplantation of ureters draining bilaterally scarred kidneys the improvement in GFR following surgery was highly significant (P<0.001), with improvement occurring in 75%. The greatest improvement was in patients where the GFR was<50 ml/min/1.73m2(29%). Individual kidney GFR was estimated in 42 kidneys and 81% improved after surgery. This improvement was highly significant (P<0.0