Etiology of acute urinary retention following benign anorectal surgery.

The etiology of acute urinary retention following benign anorectal surgery is unknown. We performed bedside urodynamic evaluation on nine patients who developed acute urinary retention after benign anorectal surgery. A bladder contraction was demonstrated in all patients, which suggests that the retention is due to bladder outlet obstruction and not bladder acontractility. These findings have important implications for preventing and treating acute urinary retention following anorectal surgery for benign disease.