Review of adolescent urinary tract infection

The diagnosis and management of adolescent urinary tract infection (UTI) share some of the clinical features seen in infections of the young and old. Whereas most infections in the young patient demand an extensive radiologic work-up, the teenager with a UTI is not so straightforward. The clinician must balance being too aggressive with being too conservative in the diagnosis and management of these patients. UTIs occur most frequently among adolescent females and are usually uncomplicated and not associated with underlying anatomic abnormalities. Smaller numbers of adolescent males suffer from UTIs, and the need to search for underlying abnormalities is not clear. Adolescent UTI is associated with nascent sexual activity and is also more common in voiding/elimination syndromes. Future studies examining UTI, specifically in the adolescent age group, will help provide clinicians with a more focused algorithm in the diagnosis and management of adolescent UTIs.