Acute urinary retention: what is the impact on patients' quality of life?
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the impact of admission for acute urinary retention (AUR) on patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) compared with that on admission for elective surgery for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and emergency admission for renal colic (RC).


METHODS
Over a 2-year period, three groups of men were recruited from one institution: group 1, men aged >50 years presenting to the accident and emergency (A&E) department with AUR; group 2, for comparison, men aged >50 years admitted for elective surgery for BPH; and group 3, men aged >40 years presenting to A&E with RC. A self-completed HRQoL questionnaire was administered at five visits (72 h from admission, and 1, 2, 3 and 6 months afterward) over a 6-month follow-up.


RESULTS
Group 1 reported mean pain scores on admission of 7.7, compared with 5.6 for group 2 and 8.3 for group 3. Patients in group 1 had the most investigations and recurrent attendance to A&E throughout the study, compared with almost none for the other two groups. There was a substantial economic burden for group 1; 15% had extra help at home at a mean cost of 403 UK pounds for the duration of the study. For the other domains assessed (e.g. emotions, mental state, general health) groups 1 and 2 were similar.


CONCLUSIONS
An episode of AUR has a measurable impact on patients' HRQoL, which often occurs in the community and therefore may not be appreciated by the urology team providing their care. Further work is therefore required to improve the "patient journey" for those with AUR, and to prevent patients developing AUR in the future.
Thomas
Kay
K
Urology Department, St George's Hospital, London, UK. specialkthomas@hotmail.com
Oades
Grenville
G
Taylor-Hay
Cathy
C
Kirby
Roger S
RS
D000041:Absenteeism; D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D003085:Colic / Q000209:etiology; D017558:Elective Surgical Procedures; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011470:Prostatic Hyperplasia / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D011788:Quality of Life; D012008:Recurrence; D014546:Urinary Catheterization; D016055:Urinary Retention / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery