Urinary infection and complications during clean intermittent catheterization following spinal cord injury.

A total of 50 patients with recent spinal cord injury secondary to trauma participated in a prospective study of urinary complications during an interval of clean intermittent catheterization at initial hospitalization in a spinal cord injury unit. Patients were assigned randomly to groups receiving or not receiving a prophylactic antibacterial preparation. Both groups were divided further into subgroups in which laboratory infections (bacteriuria more than 100,000 organisms per ml.) were treated with definitive antibiotics or in which antibiotic treatment was given only for clinical infections (fever more than 100F or urethral discharge and bacteriuria). Antibacterial prophylaxis significantly reduced the probability of laboratory infection but not the probability of clinical infection, although a trend was noted toward fewer clinical infections. No significant reduction was noted in the probability of clinical infection in subgroups treated promptly for laboratory infection.