Urinary tract infections. An overview.

Urinary tract infection remains the most prevalent infection acquired by hospitalized patients. The association with manipulations of the urinary tract is well known and the etiology of these infections is studied in detail. The excess cost of preventable UTI has not been established. It may be negligible for the single case but a high prevalence of nosocomial UTI could add substantially to hospital expenses. Differences in practices of bladder drainage between hospitals and countries have been identified, and educational efforts would seem effective in the management of incontinent patients when hospitalized. Though the infection is often self-limiting, when the catheter is removed, complications are seen. The lower survival with bacteriuria in old age is best explained by the presence of fatal disease in bacteriuric patients. Prevention of the infection with the catheter in situ is discouraging, and measures intended to interfere with the endogenous source of infection have largely failed or postponed infection. A radical approach to the use of indwelling catheters in hospitalized patients may seem the only way out, requiring highly skilled nursing care instead.