Urinary Tract Infection in Chronic Dialysis Patients: A Prospective Study

We studied prospectively 48 patients with end stage renal disease on chronic dialysis (hemodialysis or chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis). Of these 48 patients, 9(19%) had urinary tract infection (UTI), 4(8%) had symptomatic UTI, and 14(29%) had sterile pyuria. Among 16 patient who had documented previous UTI, 8(50%) had repeated UTI at presentation compared to 1 of 32 patients who had not documented previous UTI. Daily urine out put in all patients with sterile pyuria was lesser than 500ml. No significant correlation was seen between frequences of UTI and duration of dialysis therapy. Successful cure with oral antibiotic treatment for 1-2 weeks achieved in 6 of 9 patients with UTI. However, recurrence of infection occurred in 3, one patient was diabetic with neurogenic bladder, another was patient with chronic pyelonephritis who had experienced perinephric abscess. Third was patient with chronic pyelonephritis complicated with chronic UTI, paraplegia, and vesico-renal reflux. This patient was admitted to hospital for intravenous gentamycin therapy.