Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
Urinary tract infection is the infection of urinary tract where there is a present of bacteria in the urine. Infection is most often due to bacteria from the patient’s own bowel flora and been transfer to urinary tract may be via the bloodstream.
Risk factors
- Pregnancy
- Genital and urinary tract malformations
- Urinary tract obstruction
- Instrumentation to genital and urinary tract
- Urethral reverberations at sexual intercourse
- Calculus
- Prostatic obstruction
- Bladder diverticulum
- Spinal injury
- Trauma
- Urinary tract tumor
- Diabetes mellitus
- Immunosuppression
- Decrease estrogen level (during menopause)
Types of UTI
- Pyelonephritis : infection of the kidney
- Cystitis : infection of the bladder
- It can be simple and complicated UTI
Symptoms:
General symptoms:
- Frequency / dysuria / haematuria
- Urinary incontinence
- Urinary retention
- Fever associate with nausea and vomiting
- Urgency and stangury
- Abdominal pain (loin pain, suprapubic pain, right and left iliac fossa pain)
Acute pyelonephritis:
- Loin and flank pain
- Dysuria (painful urination)
- Frequency
- Fever
- Rigors
- Cloudy or blood stained urine
Cystitis:
- Frequency
- Urgency
- Dysuria
- Haematuria (blood stained urine)
- Usually no fever, but you might experience of mild fever
- Loin tenderness
- Enlarged bladder
- Large prostate
- Renal mass
- Meatal ulcer
- Vaginal discharge
- Hypertension
- Signs of chronic renal failure
- Urinalysis (Urine FEME) Colony count of greater than 100 000 organisms/ml is significant ( In fresh mid stream specimen of urine).
- Urine microscopy – in UTI, there is presentation of pus cells and organisms (usually Gram negative rods)
- Urine culture and sensitivity – to look for the organism and the sensitivity of the antibiotic. Usually done if there is recurrent infection.
- Full blood count – to look for haemoglobin and white cell count.
- Urea and electrolytes.
- Serum creatinine level – to look for renal function.
Common organisms that cause UTI
- Escherichia Coli – it cause >70% of all simple UTI
- Proteus
- Klebsiella
- Pseudomonas
- Faecal streptococci
- Drink plenty of clear fluid.
- Urinate often.
- Antibiotics will be prescribed by your doctor – Some antibiotics of choice are bacampicillin, amoxicillin and trimethoprim (antibiotics should be change according to urine culture and sensitivity result)
- Analgesic or pain killer should be prescribed if loin pain is present
- Mist potassium citrate or other type of urinary alkalinizer can be given to relief the symptom of dysuria. However, it shouldn’t be given to patient that suffers for renal failure and hypernatremia.
- Try to avoid sexual intercourse during infection.
- Double voiding (going again after 5 minutes).
- Voiding after sexual intercourse may prevent reinfection.
- Keep the hygiene.
- Wrong antibiotics.
- Failure to complete the course of the antibiotics.
- Resistant organisms.
- There is underlying obstruction of the urinary tract.
- Renal or bladder calculus (or stones).
- Urinary tract tumor.
- Urinary retention.
- Specific infection (e.g.: tuberculosis).
- Further investigations is needed includes IVU (intravenous urography), KUB (kidney ureter bladder) x-ray or ultrasound and cystoscopy.
- Recurrent infection causes considerable morbidity.
- It can cause severe renal disease including end stage renal failure.
- Common source of life threatening Gram Negative septicemia.
Tags: complications, cystitis, Escherichia Coli, health, pyelonehritis, risk factors, symptoms, treatment, urinary tract infection, urology
Technorati Tags: complications, cystitis, Escherichia Coli, health, pyelonehritis, risk factors, symptoms, treatment, urinary tract infection, urology
Thanks for the post… anyone who has had a UTI can tell you how incredibly awful they are. I appreciate the tips!
UTIs sound terrible! I think a character’s dad in Crash (the movie) had it. UTI weren’t really explored, but it looked incredibly painful!
And BOO that women are likely to have it sometime during their lifetime! I am not looking forward to that!
Thank you for this helpful article. As a nurse, we are prone in getting UTIs — and I believe that drinking more than 8 glasses of water and urinating frequently best prevents this from recurring.
Yupp… the disadvantage of being a paramedic is sometimes you have to ignore your own need for the best of patient interest because most of us think that patient is our first priority, especially in acute situation. Some people even ignore their urge to urinate. I personally think that this is not good. You can easily get UTI, and at the end of the day, you might end up with renal impairment! Just don’t over do it. Taking care of others doesn’t mean that we have to put our own life on jeopardy.
UTI’s can be very painful and just all around miserable. There’s a ton of good information here on how to prevent them and what to do if you get one. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting post. I think that consumers soon will be their own doctors with appropriate analytical and medical equipment at hand. Although it may be expensive investment but it will certainly help and save money in a long run.
My wife was suffering from this problem some years back and the best remedy we found for her was baking soda. A mixture of 1/2 tsp baking soda in eight ounce glass of water can be very helpful on the first signs of urinary tract infection. The presence of baking soda in your system raises the acid-base balance of the acidic urine.
Vitamin C prevents the bacterial growth due to the acidic environment created in the bladder and the urinary tract. It is very important to have a healthy diet which is rich in minerals and other supplements for your daily quota. You can maintain the alkaline content in urine by a rich diet of milk, fruits, and fresh vegetables.
I feel cranberry juice is the best. Cranberry juice disallows bacteria to cling to the cell, which line the urinary tract. It is a great remedy to fight this infection. If you cannot have the cranberry juice directly you can mix it with apple juice to add some taste.
Cranberry juice, by far the most renowned natural remedy, has been clinically proven to have antibacterial properties that restrict bacteria from adhering to the urethral tissue or bladder. Cranberry or blueberry juices in their pure form or at the most sweetened by apple or grape juice can disinfect the urinary tract to a great extent.
In case of UTIs diet which consists of processed food like cheese, chocolate, dairy products should be avoided. You should also avoid spicy food, caffeine, alcohol and cigarettes which otherwise is also harmful. Avoid carbonated drinks like beer, soda or any other drink with fizz. As if not followed it could result in severe infection in future.
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