Treatment of Lower Urinary Tract Infection Summary

INTRODUCTION The urinary tract is the second commonest site of bacterial infection and is a cause of significant morbidity both in terms of the number of people affected and the potential complications. Urinary tract infections (UTI's) can be classified into complicated or uncomplicated UTI's. An infection is considered to be complicated if it affects pregnant women, children, men or the elderly or if it affects the upper tract. Uncomplicated UTI's involve the lower urinary tract and encompass the syndrome of acute dysuria and frequency in otherwise healthy, non-pregnant women. Significant bacteriuria is generally regarded as cultured urine that yields a pure growth of organisms of greater than 105 colony forming units (CFU) per ml.1 Sometimes a pure growth of >103 CFU/ml may be clinically important. The basis of management is the recognition that UTI's have vastly differing significance depending on the patients clinical picture, sex and age.