Incidence of Urinary Retention Following Posterior Spinal Fusion for Adolescent and Pediatric Scoliosis at a Single Academic Center: is There a Role for Prophylactic Tamsulosin?

The purpose of this study is to better characterize patient- and surgery-specific parameters associated with postoperative urinary retention (POUR) and assess the impact of prophylactic Tamsulosin following posterior spinal fusion (PSF) for the management of scoliosis in pediatric and adolescent patients. All patients who underwent PSF for surgical correction of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and neuromuscular scoliosis (NMS) between 2015 and 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were stratified based on whether they received prophylactic Tamsulosin. Overall, POUR was reported in 3.7% (n = 10) of all patients in the study, although Tamsulosin was associated with a lower rate of POUR, and this did not reach statistical significance. Longer fusion constructs were identified as a risk factor for POUR and could help surgeons counsel families prior to surgery. This is the first study to assess the rate of POUR on AIS and NMS patients following PSF without epidural analgesia. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 33(1):010-013, 2024).