The Prevalence, Etiologic Agents and Risk Factors for Urinary Tract Infection Among Spinal Cord Injury Patients

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are important causes of morbidity and mortality in patients with spinal cord injury and 22% of patients with acute spinal cord injury develop UTI during the first 50 days. Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence, etiologic agents and risk factors for asymptomatic bacteriuria and symptomatic urinary tract infections in patients with spinal cord injury. Patients and Methods: This was a prospective investigation of spinal cord injury patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria and symptomatic urinary tract infections in Baskent University Medical Faculty Ayas Rehabilitation Center and Ankara Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Center between January 2008 and December 2010. The demographic status, clinical and laboratory findings of 93 patients with spinal cord injury were analyzed in order to determine the risk factors for asymptomatic or symptomatic bacteriuria Results: Sixty three (67.7%) of 93 patients had asymptomatic bacteriuria and 21 (22.6%) had symptomatic urinary tract infection. Assessment of the frequency of urinary bladder emptying methods revealed that 57 (61.3%) of 93 patients employed permanent catheters and 24 (25.8%) employed clean intermittent catheterization. One hundred and thirty-five (48.0%) of 281 strains isolated form asymptomatic bacteriuria attacks and 16 (66.6%) of 24 strains isolated from symptomatic urinary tract infection attacks, totaling 151 strains, had multidrug resistance (P > 0.05). One hundred (70.4%) of 142 Escherichia coli strains and 19 (34.5%) of 55 Klebsiella spp strains proliferated in patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria; 8 (80%) of 10 E. coli strains and 4 (80%) of 5 Klebsiella spp. strains were multidrug resistant. Conclusions: The most common infectious episode among spinal cord injury patients was found to be urinary tract infection. E. coli was the most common microorganism isolated from urine samples. Antibiotic use in the previous 2 weeks or 3 months, hospitalization during the last one-year and previous diagnosis of urinary tract infection were the risk factors identified for the development of infections with multi-drug resistant isolates. Urinary catheterization was found to be the only independent risk factor contributing to symptomatic urinary tract infection.