Questionnaire survey of urologists and primary care physicians' diagnostic and treatment practices for prostatitis.

OBJECTIVES

To establish diagnostic and treatment practices for chronic prostatitis by survey of urologists in Wisconsin and primary care providers in Dane County, Wisconsin.

METHODS

All Wisconsin urologists (n = 135) and primary care providers in Dane County, Wisconsin (n = 365) were surveyed by mail with a 10-item questionnaire used to establish diagnostic and treatment practices for prostatitis.

RESULTS

Seventy-eight percent of primary caregivers consider prostatitis to be bacterial in nature, whereas 59% of urologists consider it to be noninfectious. Fewer than 50% of primary care providers consider pain to be other than perineal in the diagnosis. Fewer than 50% of urologists or primary caregivers evaluate expressed prostatic secretions and few primary care providers (11%) use nonantibiotic therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

The diagnostic and treatment practices for prostatitis do not follow standard textbook algorithms.