Urinary Retention in Female after Augmentation Gluteoplasty: A Case Report

Introduction: There are many well-known complications after gluteal augmentation surgery, such as: seroma, hematoma, capsular contracture, retraction, wound dehiscence etc., but there are some due to nervous damage (especially submuscular pockets with large implants) insufficiently recognized. The aim of this case report is to highlight a rare complication (urinary retention) after gluteal augmentation surgery with use of solid silicone implants in case of 41-year-old female. Woman aged 41 with a buttock augmentation with silicone implant (submuscular pocket, 300cc) performed 2 months before at plastic surgery service in Madrid, was admitted in our service, the Clinic of Urology from Tg. Mures, with permanent bladder catheter inserted for urinary retention.
Outcome: At the admission, two months after the surgery the clinical examination revealed a permeable urinary catheter with clear urine and a fistulisated wound infection localized in the superior 1/3 of the incision in the intergluteal sulcus. Neither neurological or gynecological examination identified any pathology. After the removal of the catheter, next day the abdominal ultrasonography showed a distended bladder, with a postvoid residual urine volume of 320 ml. Urodynamic investigations (uroflowmetry, pressure flow studies) revealed a reduced Qmax. 7,6 ml/sec, underactive detrusor with a reduced BCI value of 60 (bladder contractility index), requiring self-intermittent catheterization, associated with alpha-blockers.
Conclusions: Buttock implantation is a frequently used plastic surgery procedure with rather high rate of complications, some of them not well identified, unknown such as detrusor underactivity leading to urinary retention.