Bladder Scan Misleading a Vascular Emergency as Urinary Retention.

A middle-aged man arrives from a nursing facility to the emergency department with urinary retention and abdominal pain. A bladder scan was performed to identify the amount of urine in the bladder. Multiple attempts were made to place a urinary catheter without difficulty, but no urine was identified. When several attempts are made to insert a urinary catheter without success of urinary output, one must stop and rule out other causes. This case study outlines the etiology, diagnostics tests, and management of a patient with urinary retention.