[Postoperative urinary retention requiring surgery]

Surgical procedures are often followed by postoperative urinary retention (PU). Sometimes PU is persistent, and prostate surgery, which might otherwise not have been required, is needed shortly after another operation. To find the frequency of this problem, we have retrospectively studied all cases of prostate surgery over a period of two years. Two hundred and fifty-eight operations were performed. Twenty were due to persistent PU after miscellaneous operations, mainly herniotomies and total hip arthroplasties. For men above 70 years old, the frequency of secondary prostate surgery was respectively 4% and 11% after these two operations. Eighty-five percent of the patients had symptoms of prostatism prior to the first operation. It is concluded that elderly men should be asked about voiding disorders before planned surgery, and these should be treated first.