Positive urine culture prior to transrectal prostate biopsy was not associated with infectious complications development.

OBJECTIVE

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Its histological diagnosis is based on prostate biopsy. The transrectal procedure is one of the most common procedures performed by urologists. Although it is considered safe, post-biopsy infectious complications are frequently observed in practice. The aim of this study is to investigate the value of urine culture before the transrectal biopsy. Secondly, we assessed potential risk factors for infectious complications following TR-PB.

METHODS

We performed a retrospective analysis of all patients who underwent urine culture tests before transrectal prostate biopsy between January 2019 and July 2020. The inclusion criteria for the study were all indications for prostate biopsy (PSA>4ng/mL or abnormal digital rectal examination). Baseline characteristics and the incidence of post-biopsy urinary tract infection were compared between patients showing positive pre-biopsy culture results and those showing negative findings. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine risk factors for infectious complications following TR-PB.

RESULTS

Out of 163 patients included in our study, 19 patients (11.65%) had positive urine culture results before the biopsy. Age (P=0.068); history of hospitalization (P>0.999), history previous of quinolone use (P=0.75), history of UTI (P=0.64); median PSA level at diagnosis (P=0.267); prostate volume (P=0.78); post-void residual volume (P=0.374); percentage of patients testing positive for cancer on biopsy (P=0.81); and percentages of patients with a history of biopsy (P=0.889), diabetes mellitus (P=0.524), hypertension (P=0.714) and immunosuppressive medication use (P>0.999) were similar between the two groups. One patient in the positive urine culture group had post-biopsy prostatitis. However, 3.24% (five patients) of the negative urine culture group had the disease (P=0.789) (four patients with prostatitis and one with epididymitis). Among them, four patients were diagnosed by urine culture at the time of post-biopsy urinary tract infection. Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that history of hospitalization and history of previous quinolone use were risk factors for infection after transrectal prostate biopsy.

CONCLUSION

Our study suggests that systematically performing urine cultures before transrectal prostate biopsy does not reduce the rate of infectious complications after biopsy. Positive pre-biopsy cultures were not associated with the development of post-biopsy infectious complications.