**1. Introduction**

278 Urinary Incontinence

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efficacy of the artificial sphincter AMS 800 for the treatment of postradical prostatectomy urinary incontinence and the correlation between preoperative

> Urinary diversion is a detour of the urinary tract. It may be necessary in different scenarios and can either be continent or incontinent, catheterisable or orthotopic. Pathological situations which may demand a urinary diversion are varied and include anatomical, physiological, congenital and traumatic causes, e.g. urethral stenosis and partial or complete urethral disruption; bladder dysfunction secondary to radiotherapy or congenital pathologies (posterior urethral valve, Prune-Belly Syndrome, epispadias, bladder extrophy, cloaca); neurogenic bladder and idiopathic bladder dysfunction [1-3].

> The treatment has essentially four main goals: preservation of the upper urinary tract, urinary continence, adequate reservoir emptying and avoidance of urinary tract infections [4]. With the continued development of less invasive treatments for almost all urological pathologies (including severe bladder dysfunction) surgical urinary diversion can be currently considered the end treatment for these patients [2,4,5].

> Urinary diversion can be classified as either continent or incontinent. Continent urinary diversion refers to a reservoir which can be emptied through clean intermittent catheterization (CIC). Incontinent diversion refers to situations where a continuous free urinary flow through an interposed intestinal segment pours into a collecting bag [2].

> Although being a realistic alternative to treat patients with a compromised bladder or urethra, one must be aware of the inherent challenges and possible complications related to urinary diversion. This encompasses not only the surgical aspects, but also the post operative care and management of complications.

> We review pre and post operative aspects related to the continent urinary diversion commonly used in benign pathologies and the current literature pertaining to this.
