Acute and chronic prostatitis: diagnosis and treatment.

Several distinct types of prostatitis, or prostatitis syndromes, are now recognized. The most common types include acute and chronic bacterial prostatitis, nonbacterial prostatitis, and prostatodynia. Bacterial prostatitis, caused mainly by enterobacteria, is often difficult to cure, and chronic bacterial prostatitis is a common cause of relapsing recurrent urinary tract infection in men. Nonbacterial prostatitis, the most common syndrome, is an inflammation of the prostate of unknown cause. Patients with prostatodynia typically have sterile cultures and normal prostatic secretions but demonstrate an acquired voiding dysfunction on video-urodynamic testing. Since nonbacterial types of prostatitis have no recognized infectious cause, treatment using antimicrobial agents is ineffective and unwarranted.