Urinary Tract Infection and Prostatitis

Abstract 

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is common and frequently recurs. Studies in general practice in the UK have shown that the annual consultation rate per 1000 is approximately 14 for males and 60 for females. The prevalence rates generally reflect predisposing factors. These include congenital anomalies in infants, assumption of sexual activity (particularly in females), prostatic obstruction in males, and post-menopausal changes in the urinary tract in females. UTI may be covert (asymptomatic bacteriuria) or cause symptoms restricted to the lower urinary tract (cystitis) or severe pyrexial illness with flank pain and presumed renal involvement (acute pyelonephritis). Rarely, local septic complications or even fatal endotoxaemia follow, but usually only in association with obstruction or where host resistance is impaired (immunosuppression, diabetes). It has been asserted that urinary infection after infancy will not cause significant damage to a normal kidney, though this view remains controversial.

Keywords:  urology , urinary tract , infection , prostatitis

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