Investigation of the neurogenic bladder.

URODYNAMICS The term "urodynamics" encompasses any investigation of urinary tract function although it is often used colloquially as a synonym for cystometry. Cystometry, the measurement of bladder pressure, has been the main tool used to show abnormal behaviour of the neurogenic bladder. The earliest reference to a study measuring bladder pressure is commonly given as the paper by Mosso and Pellacani published in 1882.1 With a water manometer they showed that bladder pressure rose at the start of micturition and then gradually declined but that during storage the pressure measured within the organ gave little indication of what volume it contained. However, the paper which described a technique for cystometry producing what is regarded as the precursor of modem day urodynamic recordings was published in Brain in 1933 by Denny-Brown and Robertson2 from the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, Queen Square. By means