Signs and Symptoms
Benign prostatic hyperplasia symptoms are classified as storage or voiding.
Storage symptoms include urinary frequency, urgency (compelling need to void that cannot be deferred), urgency incontinence, and voiding at night (nocturia).
Voiding symptoms include urinary stream hesitancy (needing to wait for the stream to begin), intermittency (when the stream starts and stops intermittently), straining to void, and dribbling. Pain and dysuria are usually not present. These storage and voiding symptoms are evaluated using the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) questionnaire, designed to assess the severity of BPH.
BPH can be a progressive disease, especially if left untreated. Incomplete voiding results in stasis of bacteria in the bladder residue and an increased risk of urinary tract infection. Urinary bladder stones are formed from the crystallization of salts in the residual urine. Urinary retention, termed acute or chronic, is another form of progression. Acute urinary retention is the inability to void, while in chronic urinary retention the residual urinary volume gradually increases, and the bladder distends. This can result in bladder hypotonia. Some patients that suffer from chronic urinary retention may eventually progress to renal failure, a condition termed obstructive uropathy.
Read more about this topic: Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia
Famous quotes containing the words signs and, signs and/or symptoms:
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and I will multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 7:3.
“Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage,
Till pitying Nature signs the last release,
And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“A certain kind of rich man afflicted with the symptoms of moral dandyism sooner or later comes to the conclusion that it isn’t enough merely to make money. He feels obliged to hold views, to espouse causes and elect Presidents, to explain to a trembling world how and why the world went wrong. The spectacle is nearly always comic.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)