Prevalence and Risk Factors of Urinary Incontinence and Bladder Retention in Gastric Bypass Surgery: a Cross-Sectional Study

Morbid obesity is a known risk factor for developing symptoms of urinary incontinence. However, it is not known if this leads to a high prevalence of perioperative incontinence and bladder retention after bariatric surgery because routine use of bladder catheterization is usual during this kind of surgery. The study was conducted at a general hospital in the Netherlands. Sixty morbidly obese female patients undergoing laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery were included in the present study. Preoperative urinary incontinence and risk factors were investigated by use of questionnaires. The following perioperative parameters were collected: operation time, total amount of intravenous fluids, preoperative urinary retention on the ward measured by bladder scan, postoperative urinary incontinence on the recovery room, postoperative urinary retention on the ward after passing urine measured by bladder scan, and observed urination on the ward. The prevalence of preoperative incontinence was 43 %. Nine patients (15 %) had postoperative urinary incontinence including four patients with known incontinence and five patients without. There were no differences between the patients with and without postoperative incontinence with relation to age, body mass index, diabetes mellitus, operation time, received amount of intravenous fluids and pre- and postoperative bladder scan residual volumes. Although the prevalence of urinary incontinence is high among morbidly obese female patients seeking bariatric surgery, postoperative incontinence was only present in 15 % of patients, and there was no need for catheterization for bladder retention. Preoperative risk factors for developing this kind of complications could not be identified.