Infectious complications after transrectal MRI-targeted and systematic prostate biopsy

To compare infectious complications after transrectal systematic prostate biopsy (SB) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-targeted biopsy (TB) in a large retrospective cohort to assess whether one technique is superior to the other regarding infectious complications.

A total of 4497 patients underwent 5288 biopsies, 2875 (54%) SB and 2413 (46%) MRI-TB only. On average, 12 SB cores and 3.7 MRI-TB cores were taken per biopsy session during the study period. Infection-related complications within 30 days were compared. The primary endpoint was a positive urine culture. Secondary endpoints were positive blood cultures, urine tests with elevated leukocytes ≥ 100 E6/L and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) ≥ 100 mg/L. Chi-square test was used to compare the cohorts.

Positive urine cultures were found in 77 (2.7%) after SB and in 42 (1.7%) after MRI-TB (p = 0.022). In total, 46 (0.9%) blood culture positive infections were found, 23 (0.9%) occurred after SB and 23 (1.0%) after MRI-TB, (p = 0.848). Urine tests with elevated leukocytes ≥ 100 E6/L were found in 111 (3.9%) after SB and in 61 (2.5%) after MRI-TB (p = 0.006). Elevated CRP ≥ 100 mg/L was found in 122 (4.2%) after SB and in 72 (3.0%) after MRI-TB (p = 0.015). Blood cultures were drawn more often after SB than after MRI-TB, but the difference was not statistically significant. However, urine cultures and CRP were taken more often after SB than MRI-TB.

Blood culture positive infections were equally rare after SB and MRI-TB. However, all other infectious complications were more common after SB than MRI-TB.