RESUMEN
To assess and evaluate the occurrence of the post operative urinary distention using ultrasound technique. A total of 328 patients who underwent abdominal, neurosurgical, orthopedic and ENT surgical procedures at Prince Rashid Bin Al-Hassan Hospital between 1[st] April 2009 till 28[th] February 2010, were included in the study. Post operative urinary distention was assessed using ultrasound at the time of discharge from recovery room. The variables in the study were age, gender, type of anesthesia, type and duration of surgeries. Simple descriptive statistic [frequency and percentage] was used to describe the study variables. Of the 328 patients who were included in the study, 134 patients [40.9%] were noted to have bladder distention. Eighty-three patients [25.3%] who had bladder distention were unable to urinate within 30 minutes and underwent transient urinary catheterization. These patients were older than 55 years, experienced long surgical procedures for more than 125 minutes; the majority of them were males and received spinal anesthesia. For post operative urinary retention, it was concluded that spinal anesthesia, long duration of surgery and age of 55 years and above are at high risk of having urine retention. Ultrasound is considered a good and reliable technique to reveal bladder distention and urinary retention in these patients