Febrile reactions after transrectal ultrasound-guided prostatic biopsy: a retrospective study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence and clinical presentation in patients with hospital admission owing to febrile infections after transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies.

The case histories of the 57 patients (3.5%) who, between January 2006 and December 2009, were admitted owing to a febrile infection secondary to the 1633 transrectal prostate biopsies performed during the period were retrospectively analysed. Norfloxacin 400 mg ? 2 was given for 3 days as prophylaxis starting just before or within 10 min of biopsy.

Quinolone-resistant Escherichia coli was isolated from blood cultures in 43% of the patients (n = 15) presenting with fever between 24 and 48 h postbiopsy. The urine culture was positive in 13% and no patient had symptoms suggestive of a urinary tract infection (UTI). In patients presenting after 48 h (n = 42), quinolone-resistant E. coli was never isolated from blood; E. coli was cultured from urine in 45% of the patients and in 48% it was associated with UTI symptoms.

The finding that early postbiopsy fever was often associated with a quinolone-resistant E. coli bacteraemia and never with UTI symptoms, as opposed to late-onset fever, where such symptoms were common and quinolone-resistant E. coli was rarely detected, suggests divergent pathogenic mechanisms underpinning early- and late-onset febrile reactions. These findings have implications for how antibiotic prophylaxis should be given.