Efficiency of short and long term antimicrobial therapy in transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies.

OBJECTIVE Prostate biopsy is a frequent diagnostic measure to detect prostatic conditions, including primarily prostate cancer. Its performance does not follow a pattern, mainly regarding preparation for the examination through antimicrobial prophylaxis. The aim of this study is to compare the efficiency of short and long term antimicrobial prophylaxis in transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies. MATERIALS AND METHODS A clinical study was conducted with a total of 140 patients submitted to prostate biopsy with transrectal ultrasonographic control. Patients were randomly separated in two groups: Group 1 receiving norfloxacin 400mg single dose before the procedure and Group 2 receiving norfloxacin 400mg initiating before the procedure and then bid up to 6 doses. Efficiency control was determined by the incidence of urinary tract infection (UTI) and complications in both groups after statistical analysis. RESULTS The incidence of minor complications in our study was 75%, consistent with data found in the literature. Among the patients with diagnosis of simple UTI, 23% belonged to Group 1 and 8% to Group 2 (p=0.08). Among the patients with complicated UTI, 37% belonged to Group 1 and none belonged to Group 2 (p=0.44). CONCLUSIONS Several advances made transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies a useful and safe diagnostic tool in the workup of urologic patients. There is no optimal prophylactic preparation to the performance of this procedure. Long term antimicrobial prophylaxis presents a trend toward lower incidence of infectious complications.