This project won the "Ausonia" Incontinence First Prize among those projects submitted during 1999. This article analyzes the prevalence of urinary incontinence among patients diagnosed as suffering acute ictus after 3 months, 6 months and 12 months. The authors also investigate those factors associated with acute ictus incontinence, how incontinence influences a patient's evolution, and how incontinence affects the environment where recuperation occurs, at home or in an institution, while the patient is recovering. The results confirm that acute urinary incontinence is a forecasting factor, independent of the poor middle and long range functional prognosis, and that the potential prognosis is superior than the seriousness of the neurological deficit at the moment a patient enters a hospital.