Urinary retention is the inability of an individual to urinate despite having a full bladder, with its consequent increase in volume, which is known as a bladder balloon.
This condition in times past was called iscuria.
If you have any of the following symptoms, see your doctor:
- Pain at the level of the hypogastrium.
- Absence of urination for several hours
- Confusion, state of agitation.
- Difficulty starting to urinate
- Difficulty emptying the bladder completely
- Weak urine flow or dribbling
- Loss of small amounts of urine during the day
- Inability to feel when the bladder is full
Chronic urinary retention:
- Pelvic heaviness
- Pollakiuria
- Dysuria
- Reduced urine stream
- Feeling of poor bladder emptying
complications
The most frequent of the complications is urinary infection: cystitis first and then pyelonephritis. When chronic, retention causes bladder distension with detrusor atony, detrusor hypertrophy, or bladder diverticula formation.
Urinary retention could cause a reflux of urine towards the kidneys, which would cause hydronephrosis.
Prostatic causes in men
- Benign prostatic hyperplasia (prostate adenoma)
- Prostate cancer
Urethral causes
- Calculus or blood thrombus in the urethra
- A tumor
- Bladder hypoactivity
- Phimosis
- Posterior urethral valve
- Traumatic urethral stricture
- Extrinsic urethral compression: fecaloma, pelvic tumor
neurological causes
Sphincter problem of neurological origin:
- Paraplegia
- Cauda equina syndrome
- Plaque sclerosis
