Introduction

Although there is evidence from longitudinal community-based studies and placebo arms of controlled studies that AUR is a rather uncommon outcome in men with BPH, this painful and distressing condition is the presenting feature in 20–42% of men who have a TURP in Britain and North America, and thus represents a significant publichealth issue. There is high variability both within and among countries in the management of AUR in real practice, in terms of the duration of catheterization, hospital admission, management after a failed trial without catheter, and emergency or elective surgery. This can be explained by differences in access to care, and by a lack of harmonization and consensus in the management of AUR. A state-of-theart review of the management of AUR, including the results of two recent surveys addressing this issue, will be presented by John Fitzpatrick, already introduced above, and by Roger Kirby, from St George’s Hospital, London, UK.