www.kjurology.org http://dx.doi.org/10.4111/kju.2012.53.9.619 Voiding Dysfunction Roles of Urology as Assessed by an Analysis of Inpatients Referred to Urology Geun Jae Lee, Min Seok Kim, Sung Min Song, Joon Rho, Won Jin Cho Department of Urology, Chosun University School of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the necessity for professional urology treatment and the roles of urology in the treatment of inpatients referred to the urology department. Materials and Methods: The subjects were patients referred to the department of urol- ogy among the inpatients of Chosun University Hospital from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2011. The patients’ sex and age, the referring department, and the disease group were extracted from the patients’ medical records. Disease groups were classified as urination disorder, infection, tumor, calculus, trauma, pediatrics, andrology, and others. The urination disorder group was classified into the subcategories of neurogenic bladder, benign prostatic hypertrophy, urinary retention, urinary incontinence, and overactive bladder. Results: The total number of referrals was 3,261, and males made up 54.79%. In the age distribution, 2,321 patients (71.17%) were over 60 years of age and the largest pop- ulation group was patients in their 70s (32.72%). According to the department referring the patients, internal medicine (34.06%) and orthopedic surgery (16.83%) made up a high percentage. Concerning the disease group, urination disorder was the highest, be- ing 61.26%. In the subclassification of the urination disorder group, benign prostatic hypertrophy was the highest category at 32.23%. Conclusions: In this urology cooperative behavior analysis of our hospital over 3 years, a high percentage of older patients over 60 years of age and a high percentage of uri- nation disorders were found. Urination disorder-related diseases in persons of ad- vanced age are expected to increase as Korea becomes an aged society, and doctors in other departments should be aware that professional treatment and management by a urologist is needed for the treatment of these disorders. Key Words: Advanced age; Cooperative behavior; Inpatients; Urination disorders This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Article History: received 14 June, 2012 accepted 2 August, 2012 Corresponding Author: Won Jin Cho Department of Urology, Chosun Universtity Hospital, Chosun University School of Medicine, 365 Pilmun- daero, Dong-gu, Gwangju 501-717, Korea TEL: +82-62-220-3210 FAX: +82-62-232-3210 E-mail: uro2097@gmail.com INTRODUCTION As the expected lifespan and interest in quality of life in- crease, medical demands by patients increase and become segmented. Because of the westernization of diets and life- style, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and obesity are increasing with age, and proactive treatment is being performed on aged patients with the development of medi- cal technology [1,2]. Urination disorders and urinary in- continence represented by prostatic hypertrophy and its related lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) among old men and urination disorders represented by overactive bladder in old women are increasing remarkably, and it has been reported that these disorders are closely related to chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and meta- bolic syndrome [3-5]. In other words, many patients have various kinds of other diseases as well as urologic prob- lems, and there are many patients in departments other than urology who complain of various urologic problems such as urinary retention. According to data from the Korean Journal of Urology Ⓒ The Korean Urological Association, 2012 619 Korean J Urol 2012;53:619-624