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Difficulty Urinating After Surgery?

Hi. I am a 20 year old male that had surgery completed about 12 hours ago under general anesthesia. Ever since I have been home it has been difficult, but not painful for me to urinate. I have to sit down and it can take 5 minutes before anything comes out. Is that a cause for concern?

Doctor Answers 2

January 13th, 2014

Difficulty Urinating After Surgery?

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It is not uncommon to have some difficulty urinating after surgery, especially if the surgery was more than a couple of hours and even more common when a catheter had been placed in your bladder during the time of the surgery.

Garrett A. Wirth, MD, MS, FACS


Orange County Plastic Surgeon
5.0 out of 5 stars 13 reviews

May 13th, 2013

Difficulty Urinating After Surgery?

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Greetings, thanks for your questions, usually when general anesthesia is used and in any  surgery of  more than 3 hours in length,  a tube or urinary catheter is placed in the urinary meatus  to collect and measure the  urine output during surgery ( I do not know if this is your case), the mere fact of placing the catheter can irritate the urethra produce some  urinating difficulty , this feeling usually disappears with the passage of days, antibiotics are useful in the case of urethritis

Jose Luis Acosta Collado, MD
Dominican Republic Plastic Surgeon

*Treatment results may vary

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These answers are for educational purposes and should not be relied upon as a substitute for medical advice you may receive from your physician. If you have a medical emergency, please call 911. These answers do not constitute or initiate a patient/doctor relationship.