Uninhibited urethral relaxation: an unusual cause of incontinence.
Uninhibited urethral relaxation appears to be a clinically distinct cause of urinary incontinence. It was found in 11 of 534 incontinent women who had multichannel urodynamic evaluation, and in 2 of these it was the sole cause of incontinence. This diagnosis should only be made after careful scrutiny has ruled out a low pressure detrusor contraction, cough, valsalva, or heel bounce as the cause of the urethral relaxation. Because the majority of patients had a voiding mechanism that included a detrusor contraction, it is unlikely that uninhibited urethral relaxation represents a variant of detrusor instability in patients unable to generate a detrusor contraction. It most likely reflects an exaggeration of urethral instability due to relaxation of the smooth and/or striated urethral musculature.
D006801:Humans; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D011312:Pressure; D014521:Urethra / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014563:Urodynamics