What does urinary retention mean? Causes of urinary retention

Urinary retention can be acute or chronic depending on its course. Acute urinary retention needs to be treated promptly. Urinary retention is a large amount of urine that accumulates in the bladder and cannot be discharged in time. Mechanical obstruction is a common factor leading to urinary retention, and there are also neurological factors.

1. What does urinary retention mean?

The accumulation of a large amount of urine in the bladder and the inability to expel it is called urinary retention. There are many causes of urinary retention, which can generally be divided into obstructive and non-obstructive types. The causes of obstructive urinary retention include prostate hyperplasia, urethral stenosis, bladder or urethral stones, tumors and other diseases, which block the bladder neck or urethra and cause urinary retention. Non-obstructive urinary retention means that there is no organic lesion in the bladder and urethra. Urinary retention is caused by urination dysfunction due to neural or muscle factors. Brain tumors, brain trauma, spinal cord tumors, spinal cord injuries, peripheral nerve diseases, surgery and anesthesia can all cause urinary retention.

2. According to the course of the disease, it can be divided into acute urinary retention and chronic urinary retention

Acute urinary retention: refers to the acute onset of bladder distension and inability to urinate, often accompanied by pain and anxiety caused by the obvious urge to urinate, which seriously affects the patient's quality of life.

Chronic urinary retention: Chronic urinary retention develops from difficulty in urination caused by obstructive lesions below the bladder neck. Due to persistent and severe obstruction, the detrusor muscle of the bladder may thicken in the early stage and become thinner in the later stage, the trabeculae on the mucosal surface may proliferate, small chambers and pseudodiverticula may be formed, the bladder compensatory function may be incomplete, the residual urine volume may gradually increase, and overflow incontinence may occur.

3. According to the cause, it can be divided into obstructive, neurogenic and myogenic

1. Obstructive factors: increased urine flow resistance caused by mechanical obstruction (such as urethral stenosis, blood clots or stones) or dynamic obstruction (such as increased α-adrenergic activity, prostate inflammation).

2. Neurological factors: damage to the bladder sensory or motor nerves (such as caused by pelvic surgery, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, diabetes, etc.).

3. Myogenic factors: overfilled bladder (such as anesthesia, excessive drinking).