Acute Urinary Retention due to Impacted Urethral Meatal Stone - An Infrequent Entity in Children

Abstract

Introduction Acute urinary retention in children is a relatively uncommon entity. There are various causes that leads to acute retention but are poorly defined in the literature [1,2]. Most common cause of acute retention of urine in children is lower urinary tract stone in one report [1] and neurological disease in another report [2]. Here we present a case of boy who presented with acute retention of urine due to impacted meatal stone. Case Presentation: An 8 year old boy came to emergency surgical unit with complain of sudden onset inability to pass urine and severe pain in lower abdomen since 12 hours, there was no history of trauma to abdomen and perineum, and haematuria. Clinical examination reveal palpable bladder and impacted urethral meatal stone (Figure 1), child was taken to emergency operation theatre and ventral meatotomy and extraction of stone was done, post operatively urinary catheter was kept for 24 hours. Stone analysis reveal presence of calcium and oxalate.This case highlight a seldomnly seen but still common mechanical cause of sudden onset urinary retention in boys, importance of thorough clinical examination of genitalia, planned surgical procedure to reduce the complication and stone analysis to know and treat any metabolic cause of it.