Incontinence of urine after shell-shock and burial.
An infantryman was subject to shell explosion and burial May 10, 1917. He lost consciousness for a few hours and spat blood for two days. He was carried to an evacuation hospital and thence to the neurological center at Amiens. Incontinence day and night lasted from the period of shock up to May 29, when the patient was transferred again, to another hospital. The man had never, either in childhood or adult life, had incontinence. He showed a slight tendency to latero-pulsion toward the left. Puncture fluid normal.
Guillain and Barré report but 12 cases of sphincter disorder following shell-shock without external wound among hundreds of cases, and among 12 instances of sphincter disorder there were but three of incontinence, of which the above is one example. Incontinence lasted longer in these cases than retention. Guillain and Barré are unable to assign a cause for the findings.