Urinary Retention as a Complication of Spinal Anesthesia

Bae, Jung In; Jeon, Jae Kyu

Abstract

Urinary retention has been well documented as a complication of spinal anesthesia. This occurs somewhat more frequently than after general anesthesia because the bladder wall, supplied by the parasympathetic system is paralysed by local anesthetics and its fibers from S2 are very susceptihle to analgesic solution. For 5 years since 1974, 127 cases of urinary retention were recorded from 4733 cases of spinal analgesia performed at the Dong San Medical Center. The incidence of urinary retention is 2.7% in our data. In this article, two cases of prolonged urinary retention due to spinal anesthesia are described. Case l A 44 year old female was scheduled for a vaginal hysterectomy because of a prolapse of the uterine cervix. Spinal tapping was performed at L(4~5), and 16 mg of 0.4% Pontocaine was administered. The surgery was uneventful and the patient slept from Nembutal during the whole procedure. Postoperatively the patient developed retention of urine without any abnormality observed by cystoscopy, so that she was treated with urecholine orally and recovered on the 14 th postoperative day. Case ll The patient was a 39 year old female, scheduled for a cholecystectomy. Spinal analgesia was performed and the patient was put to sleep by Nembutal and the surgery was uneventful during the whole procedure. She complained of the difficulty of voiding postoperatively. She was started on urecholine 20 mg tid orally from the 7th postoperative day, then she started voiding on the 10th postoperative day. Since then there have been no problems. The mechanism and the precipitating factors are described.

Urinary Retention as a Complication of Spinal Anesthesia

Abstract

MeSH Terms

Cited

Save citations to file

Email citations