Our case involves a 16-year-old boy who presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with urinary retention. The patient was an otherwise healthy adolescent who was experiencing intermittent fevers for 1 week, and was found to be monospot positive when seen by his pediatrician. When presenting to the ED, the patient's primary complaint was urinary retention, which he experienced acutely in the middle of the night. Due to the suspicious nature of the patient's symptoms and history of present illness, the patient received a thorough workup including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the patient's brain and spinal cord, which demonstrated findings consistent with ADEM.
There is very little literature describing a case of ADEM in the ED where the primary manifesting symptom was urinary retention. In addition, it is important that clinicians address acute urinary retention in an otherwise healthy adolescent as a red flag, with the need to rule out concerning etiology.