Prostatitis

This chapter evaluates prostatitis. The most common types of prostatitis are acute bacterial prostatitis (ABP) and chronic bacterial prostatitis (CBP). ABP must be differentiated from urinary tract infections (UTIs) and CBP must be differentiated from non-bacterial (NBP) prostatitis and recurrent cystitis. Patients with ABP are acutely ill with fever and chills, and ABP may be complicated by urosepsis or prostatic abscess. In contrast, CBP is an indolent relapsing UTI with plus or minus perineal, genital, or low back pain usually accompanied by frequency, urgency, dysuria, or dysuria. CBP patients are usually referred to infectious diseases physicians for antibiotic treatment of persistent/relapsing infection. Repeated treatment failures are most often due to suboptimal (selection and duration) antibiotic therapy for CBP.