Since Proudfit and Forteza called attention to micturition syncope in 1959 1 there has been a brisk stream of additional case reports and references to earlier descriptions of the syndrome, accompanied by speculations and investigations of its cause.2-13 The purpose of this report is not to add a case to what many experienced clinicians recognize as a large pool, but to describe some simple observations, made with ordinary equipment, which may bear on understanding its cause.
Report of a Case
A white man, age 38 years, was admitted to Palo Alto-Stanford Hospital with the chief complaint of fainting attacks associated with the voiding of urine. The first episode occurred in December, 1944, while he was aboard ship in the US Navy; on losing consciousness he struck his head on a bulkhead and incurred a superficial scalp laceration. The second syncopal episode occurred in 1946, and for the subsequent two