Could NSAIDS increase risk of acute urinary retention in men?
An epidemiological study suggests that treatment with an NSAID may sometimes provoke acute urinary retention (AUR) in men. The population-based case-control study used data from a Dutch primary care database and included all men aged over 44 and in the database for at least six months (n=72,114). Within this group, there were 536 cases of AUR and 5348 controls matched for age and calendar date of the episode. Analysis showed that NSAID users had about twice the risk of AUR as non-users, with the highest risk being for those who had recently started on doses equal or higher than the recommended daily dose. The authors conclude that men taking NSAID are at a twofold risk of AUR and that physicians should be aware of this, especially in men at risk of the conditions. They note that there is a plausible mechanism for such an effect, as prostaglandins are important in the function of the bladder detrusor muscle – in fact they have been studied in clinical trials as a treatment for detrusor
