Chronic prostatitis: comments on infectious etiologies and antimicrobial treatment.

Twenty-three males with the clinical diagnosis of chronic prostatitis were evaluated for a bacterial etiology by the Stamey and Meares method. In addition, 16 patients, regardless of culture results, were placed on either cefadroxil or oral carbenicillin antimicrobial therapy. Culture results identified only four (17%) of 23 patients with bacterial prostatitis: coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (2), Enterobacter agglomerans (1), and Haemophilus parainfluenzae, and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (1). Four of seven patients who received oral carbenicillin and three of nine patients who received cefadroxil reported symptomatic relief. This study did not identify a common etiology for chronic prostatitis or a consistently effective antimicrobial treatment. Rather, we observed that the etiologic agent in most cases of chronic prostatitis (83%) could not be identified by routine bacteriologic culture. Future research efforts in chronic prostatitis must address not only treatment regimens but expand the search for etiologic agents.