ACUTE URINARY RETENTION IN CHILDREN

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