URINARY RETENTION

Urinary retention is the difficulty in eliminating urine completely (peeing) in an adequate and physiological way.

Therefore, this incomplete emptying causes the patient to constantly have the sensation of having a full bladder, so much so that this unpleasant sensation causes the patient to need to go to the bathroom several times, leading to anincrease in urinary frequency .

TYPES OF URINARY RETENTION:

• Acute urinary retention:

When symptoms occur suddenly,leading to abdominal distension, it may eventually be necessary to seek emergency medical care.

• Chronic urinary retention:

In these cases, the difficulty in eliminating urine evolves over time, becoming more serious and also more uncomfortable for the patient.

DEGREE OF URINARY RETENTION

• Mild urinary retention:

It is likely that the first complaints will be mild, that is, more time to start urinating, more time to eliminate all the urine and the need to strain during this process.

• Moderate urinary retention:

Urination becomes more difficult, so much so that it is uncomfortable, takes a long time, has to use a lot of force and it is not possible to empty the entire bladder, certainly increasing urination frequency.

• Severe urinary retention:

bladder emptying becomes almost impossible and painful, making it necessary, always or very frequently, to use an emptying probe (bladder catheterization)< /a>.

SYMPTOMS

This pathology can begin in a milder form, with difficulty eliminating urine, where the patient realizes that she needs more time to start urinating and the urinary stream becomes weaker.

Subsequently, the difficulty in urinating becomes worse, the time to start urinating becomes longer and, consequently, the time to feel complete emptying also increases. Therefore, it is necessary to force the urination process.

Furthermore, in some cases, urination becomes impossible, extremely painful with the visualization of abdominal distension.

However, this pathology does not always start mildly and can be acute, such that it is suddenly impossible to urinate and you need to go to an emergency department.

CAUSES

Urinary retention can have various causes, from muscular, neurological, and anatomical dysfunctions, requiring a very detailed assessment.

In men, a common cause of this difficulty urinating is prostate hyperplasia This is why it is important to have routine exams regularly.

In women, pelvic organ prolapse as this condition can cause obstruction of the urethra increasing the difficulty of urination.

On the other hand, the lack of relaxation of the muscles of the PERINEUM and sphincter dyssynergia (contraction of these muscles during urination) may be the cause of this pathology.

Furthermore, there is a lack of contraction of the bladder muscles, caused by nerve injuries or trauma, is another form of manifestation of this pathology.

The habit of stopping urination (stop pipi) to train the PERINEUM is INCORRECT and can lead to inadequate emptying of the bladder, we have to sit down and relax to pee.

OUR TREATMENTS

urogynecological physiotherapy is a conservative treatment, without no side effects, which can help solve this problem if the cause is the inadequate functioning of the pelvic floor muscles.

Firstly, all patients are evaluated so that it is possible to find the most appropriate treatment in each case. All of our services are individualized, respecting the goals of each patient.

These treatments aim to improve the relaxation capacity of the PERINEUM to open the urethra and allow urination. For this purpose, electrostimulation and kinesiotherapy with biofeedback.

In some cases it is necessary to use muscle stretching techniques such as perineal massage and the stretching balloon.

We start with simple contraction and relaxation exercises; the difficulty and intensity of the exercises evolves with each consultation following the concept Active Perineal Rehabilitation and Series developed by physiotherapist Dr. Laira Ramos .