Prior Antibiotic Use And Its Possible Effect on Prostate Biopsy
Hospitalization for fever or infection should be infrequent in prostate biopsies.
In our *study (Catalona), 5 of 448 men (1.1%) were hospitalized for fever following a prostate biopsy.
Although the number is small, we’d like to know if we could predict and/or prevent this occurrence.
We discovered one contributing factor: those hospitalized appeared to have recent antibiotic use other than those prescribed in preparation for the biopsy.
One possible explanation is that men with a recent history of antibiotic therapy are more vulnerable to persistent infection.
Perhaps, these men should be treated before the biopsy with a broadspectrum antibiotic injected directly into the blood stream or the muscle as opposed to one being taken orally.
In addition, we recommend consideration of delaying a biopsy for 4-6 weeks after completion of prior antibiotic therapy for a recent infection.
*Study supported by the Urological Research Foundation.
Catalona