POSTOPERATIVE RETENTION OF URINE AND CYSTITIS

The occurrence of postoperative cystitis is still of sufficient frequency to warrant a discussion and presentation of some of the newer thoughts and methods for the prevention of this condition. A troublesome postoperative cystitis, either temporary or permanent, has often spoiled an otherwise excellent surgical result. Heretofore a postoperative cystitis has been considered by many authors solely as a cystitis due to catheterization. While this view is largely correct, it is our purpose to show that preventable, abnormal anatomic conditions of the bladder, dependent on the surgical procedure itself, are in many cases the real predisposing etiologic factors in the production of the complication, and that the catheter per se is for the most part merely the exciting cause. All authors agree that for the production of a cystitis it is necessary to have, besides the bacterial infection, one or more of the following predisposing factors, i, e., retention, trauma