[Neuroanatomical correlates between stroke lesions and urinary disorders: A narrative review]

Stroke generates diverse urinary disorders, frequent but often under-diagnosed and thus untreated. Even though advances in the comprehension of the physiological voiding control and involved brain areas, the precise correspondence between lesion sites and observed urinary symptoms is not clearly established.

This review aimed to update on this neuroanatomical correlates.

The search focused on articles written in French or English, on PubMed, studying human beings or animals, published between the 1st of January 2000 and the 31st of August 2018 using the following keywords (stroke or hemiplegia) and (urinary incontinence or low urinary tract symptom or retention or overactive bladder or dysuria) and (anatomy or location or localization or area or lesion).

The main author selected the most pertinent articles on abstracts and then on full text.

Twelve studies were included in our review. We could not fully confirm the neuroanatomical correlates based on the animal model. Frontoparietal lesions in urinary incontinence, role of the insula in the urinary retention, and systematic but different urinary symptoms in the brain stem lesions are the main findings.

Few studies were included, with varying methodologies and types of population.

A few cerebral areas damaged by stroke seem to be linked to certain urinary troubles, but new studies with a higher methodological quality are required to confirm this result.