Kth Smallest Element in a BST

Question

Given a binary search tree, write a function kthSmallest to find the kth smallest element in it.

Note: 
You may assume k is always valid, 1 ≤ k ≤ BST's total elements.

Follow up:
What if the BST is modified (insert/delete operations) often and you need to find the kth smallest frequently? How would you optimize the kthSmallest routine?

My Solution

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
 
class Solution {
public:
    int kthSmallest(TreeNode* root, int k) {
        /*中序遍历，取最小的k个*/
        int rst, num;
        rst = middleIterate(root, k, num);
        return rst;
        
    }
    
    int middleIterate(TreeNode* root, int k, int& num){
        /* 中序遍历树
        0. 边界条件：if root == Null then num = 0, return 0;
        1. rst = middleIterate(root->left, k, lnum)遍历左子树
        2. if lnum >= k then num = lnum, return rst;
        3. else if lnum == k - 1 then num = k, return root->val;
        4. else k = k - lnum - 1, rst = middleIterate(root->left, k, rnum)遍历右子树
        5. num = lnum + rnum + 1, return rst;
        */
        if(NULL == root){
            num = 0;
            return 0;
        }
        
        int r, lnum, rnum;
        r = middleIterate(root->left, k, lnum);
        if(lnum >= k){
            num = lnum;
            return r;
        }else if(k - 1 == lnum)
        {
            num = k;
            return root->val;
        }else{
            k = k - lnum - 1;
            r = middleIterate(root->right, k, rnum);
            num = lnum + rnum + 1;
            return r;
        }
        
    }
    
};