NEUROGENIC VESICAL DYSFUNCTION

Abstract

Disturbances in micturition due to diseases of the nervous system have long been known to occur with considerable frequency, and various phases of their relationship have been the subject of much careful study. However, most of the literature deals with some isolated aspect of the problem, such as the peripheral innervation of the bladder, the cystoscopic findings in nervous disorders and the treatment of certain forms of disturbances of the bladder due to nerve lesions. In some of these fields knowledge is relatively exact and is sufficient for practical purposes; in others, it is inexact or controversial. Confusion has been fostered by the tendency, of urologists especially, to attach to the condition of disturbed function of the bladder due to nervous disease several ambiguous terms such as cord, neurogenic and neurogenous bladder. The recently suggested term neurogenic vesical dysfunction (Smith and Engel¹) is preferable because it is precise and