[Dysuria in male elderly outpatients evaluated by a questionnaire survey]

We surveyed complaints of dysuria in male elderly outpatients by questionnaire survey. Seven hundred and twenty outpatients (39 aged 30-39, 63 aged 40-49, 170 aged 50-59, 229 aged 60-69, and 219 aged 70 or more) visiting our outpatient internal medicine clinics were asked by a questionnaire about the subjective symptoms of dysuria, including frequencies of nocturia, prolongation of the start of urination, straining at urination, and residual urine, graded as asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe. The subjects were divided into three groups as to the dysuria; normal group without symptoms or one mild symptom, borderline group with two or more mild symptoms, and dysuria group with one moderate or severe symptom or more. The rates of the patients in the dysuria group were increased with age, being 15%, 16%, 21%, 31% and 53%, respectively, in the above-mentioned age groups. This finding emphasized the importance of questions about dysuria in elderly patients also in internal medicine outpatient clinics, and of differential diagnosis for the causal factor(s) for dysuria in elderly patients including benign prostate hypertrophy.