Here we present the case of a 50-year-old woman with acute urinary retention who was treated by the insertion of a permanent catheter. For associated headaches, fever and muscle and joint pain, the patient underwent neurologic examination, including lumbar puncture and magnetic resonance of head and spine. The results confirmed aseptic meningitis. Subsequently, the patient was hospitalized at the infectious disease clinic, where the permanent catheter was extracted after 5 days, with spontaneous micturition recovery and no post-void residual volume. The combination of aseptic meningitis and urinary retention is called meningitis-retention syndrome. This is a rare disease, which has been described only a few times in the literature.