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Urinary retention and the lunisolar cycle: is it a lunatic phenomenon?
S R Payne1, D J Deardon, G F Abercrombie
1Department of Urology, St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth.
Objective:
To determine whether a relation between urinary retention and temporal rhythms exists.
Design:
Retrospective analysis of patients presenting over three years.
Setting:
Urology departments in two hospitals.
Patients:
815 Patients presenting as emergency admissions with urinary retention and requiring immediate decompression of the bladder.
Main Outcome Measures:
Calendar date of each admission to determine circadian, monthly, and seasonal periodicity.
Results:
No association was found between urinary retention and circadian, monthly, or seasonal rhythms. A significantly higher (p less than 0.001) incidence of urinary retention was observed during the new moon in comparison with other phases of the lunar cycle.
Conclusions:
Urinary retention is periodic in nature. This should be considered when the workload of a specialist urological department is organised.
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