The risks of urinary tract infection (UTI) and asymptomatic bacteriuria (AB) associated with shortterm catheterization have not yet been established. A prospective observational study was carried out to determine the rates of UTI and AB when transurethral Foley catheterization was used for 24 hours. The study population was 193 women undergoing routine gynecologic surgery. All had negative preoperative urine cultures, and prohylactic antibiotics were not used.
Postoperative UTI developed in 16 patients (8.3%), i.e. in only 14 of 86 with a positive culture on day i after surgery, and in 2 of 107 with a negative culture on day 1. These 16 women received antibiotics; 79 (40.9%) who had transient AB were not treated. There were no cases of upper UTI. Among 31 women discharged with AB, none developed UTI.
Although 49.2% of patients in this study had postoperative bacteriuria as measured by midstream culture, only 8.3% of patients actually developed a symptomatic infection requiring treatment. As only a minority (11.3%) of patients with postoperative AB actually developed UTI, it appears that to treat all cases of bacteriuria > 100 000 cfu/ml is unnecessary.