can a UTI cause acute urinary retention

Yes, a UTI can cause acute urinary retention, but the evidence here is mostly about other causes.

The retrieved studies focus on men with enlarged prostates, post-surgical patients, and people on certain medications. One systematic review of urethral bulking agents for stress incontinence in women found that acute urinary retention was a known side effect of some of those agents, especially Coaptite, where it occurred in about 34 out of 100 women on average [1]. That is a direct, procedure-related cause of retention, not a UTI itself.

A UTI causes inflammation and swelling in the bladder lining and urethra. That swelling can physically block the flow of urine, especially in someone who already has some narrowing from an enlarged prostate or a stricture. The infection can also irritate the nerves that control the bladder, making the sphincter clamp down and refuse to relax. This is a well-documented mechanism in clinical medicine, even though none of the studies here tested it directly.

The evidence here does not give you a number for how often a UTI alone causes retention in a healthy person. What it does show is that acute urinary retention has many causes, and infection is one of the plausible ones. If you or someone you know has a UTI and cannot urinate, that is a medical emergency requiring a catheter to drain the bladder, not something to wait out.

My call: a UTI can cause acute urinary retention through inflammation and nerve irritation, but the exact risk is not quantified in these records. Confidence: moderate.