Prostatitis, prostatosis and prostalgia. Psychogenic or organic disease?

The term 'chronic prostatitis syndrome' (C.P.S) encompasses chronic bacterial prostatitis, chlamydia or ureaplasma-associated disease, chronic 'abacterial' prostatitis, and patients with prostatosis or prostatosis or prostalgia. Interesting observations emerged from the evaluation of the clinical material indicating that the patients with abacterial prostatitis and those with prostatosis or prostaglia group have frequent sperm abnormalities and ultrasonographic changes suggesting a more complex pathogenesis than mere congestion and neurosis. Treatment in 144 evaluable patients treated with a long-acting sulphur-trimethoprim combination was almost uniformly well tolerated; Chlamydia was eradicated in all 10 treated patients and 77.4% of patients with bacterial C.P.S. were rendered free of bacteria. Sperm abnormalities were almost invariably resistant to the treatment. Only 44.4% of patients showed a partial improvement, limited to one or more parameters. Results did not differ significantly in the various subgroup. An overall evaluation of results showed that disappearance of every presenting symptom and sign was obtained in 24.3% and a significant improvement in another 25% of patients, including those in the prostatosis-prostalgia group. These results suggest that antibacterial treatment may be followed by favourable clinical results even in patients in whom no bacteria or other aetiological agents could be isolated.