Prostate enlargement symptoms become noticeable during your every day routine with frequent urination, a weak stream, the flow of urine stopping and starting, and waking up at night to go to the bathroom (nocturia). Unfortunately when these Prostate enlargement symptoms continue to be ignored other more serious complications such as an atonic bladder, bladder diverticula, or hydronephrosis may occur.

Prostate enlargement may allow what is known as a floppy bladder or atonic bladder to occur. As the bladder becomes accustomed to leaving urine in it after urinating, the nerves that are normally stretched when urine is in the bladder, no longer send a signal to the brain that urine is in the bladder. This loss of sensation is known as a compliance, which is diagnosed during a urodynamic study (a function study of the bladder). As time goes on and the amount of urinary retention increases the sensation to urinate may also lessen. Without the message being sent to the brain for the need to empty the bladder, the signals sent to your bladder to squeeze the bladder to urinate, may also decrease, since the body does not feel the need to urinate.  The bladder starts to accommodate large amounts of urine and the bladder begins to stretch out, and lose muscle tone. With the loss of sensation you, acquire an atonic bladder, also called a floppy bladder since it stretches out and loses its shape.

Prostate enlargement that constantly keeps the bladder expanded has been known to also have pouches, pockets, or sacs of tissue that line the bladder wall, these growths are called diverticula (diverticulum - singular).  Our urologists can see the hole to the diverticula on the side of the bladder and often the urologist can look into the pouch with their cystoscope. As the pouches grow in size and in number each one of them collects urine from the bladder in them, unfortunately the urine just stagnates in the diverticulum. Infections, bleeding and tumors may be hidden away in these sacs.

Prostate enlargement may be the cause of hydronephrosis. Hydronephrosis occurs when urine cannot leave the urinary system and pressure builds up causing the urine to reverse course and go back up into the kidneys. When prostate enlargement obstructs the urine from traveling out of the urethra and leaving the bladder, then reflux may occur. Reflux is what happens when the ureters open up due to a lot of pressure and urine backs up into the kidneys. The danger in this is that a kidney could be damaged beyond repair and the kidney function is lost. Sometimes the renal pelvis of the kidney will become deformed and detach from the ureter.