PREVENTION OF URINARY RETENTION AFTER GENERAL-SURGERY - A CONTROLLED TRIAL OF CARBACHOL DIAZEPAM VERSUS ALFUSOZINE/

Background: Postoperative urinary retention is a common complication a fter surgical procedures. It can cause bladder dilatation, infection, and even sepsis. Carbachol/diazepam and alfusozine have been reported to lower the incidence of postoperative urinary retention, but no stud y showed the benefits of these drugs in a randomized, placebo-controll ed trial. Study Design: We used a double blind, placebo-controlled tri al in which 249 patients with postoperative urinary retention were ran domly assigned to receive carbachol/diazepam (n = 72), alfusozine (n = 82), or placebo (n = 95). The primary endpoint was miction within 2 h ours after taking the medication. Results: There was no significant di fference in miction frequency after taking the medication among the th ree groups (p = 0.31). The miction rate was 60% for patients in the al fusozine group, 61% in the carbachol/diazepam group, and 51% in the pl acebo group. Conclusions: Alfusozine and carbachol/diazepam had no app arent benefit on the incidence of postoperative urinary retention. (C) 1997 by the American College of Surgeons.