Acute urinary retention in children

Acute urinary retention (AUR) is an uncommon diagnosis in childhood, associated with a variety of causes. The emergency physician is often the first to be called upon to evaluate and treat these children. To assist in making the diagnosis, we present our five-year experience with AUR presenting to the pediatric urology service, often through the pediatric emergency department. We present and discuss examples of not only the common reasons for AUR but also uncommon diagnoses and, in two cases, etiologies for retention we believe have not been previously described in the pediatric literature.