Female urinary tract infections State-of-the-art lecture by Veronika Geng

On Friday 23 March Veronika Geng, EAUN board member, gave a state-of-the-art lecture on female urinary tract infections (UTIs) during the 8th International Meeting of the EAUN. The aim of the lecture was to inform on the causes, types and risk factors of UTIs. Furthermore the diagnostics,therapeutic aspects and prevention of UTIs were discussed. At present, 15% of all antibiotics used in the United States are prescribed to treat UTIs . As many as 13% of hospitalised urology patients suffer from nocosomialacquired, catheter-associated UTIs. There are no precise data on female UTIs, but it is clear that it occurs more often in females than in males.

UTI types and causes
Ms Geng informed the audience on the different types of UTI: they occur in the lower or upper urinary tract and may be uncomplicated or complicated. Whether
an infection occurs depends on the virulence of the micro-organism and on the defence mechanism of the host. The most common pathogen is Escherichia coli.
There is a distinct correlation between women’s age and the causes of contracting UTIs. In premenopausal women, causes are often sexual  intercourse, multiple sex partners, sex frequency and pregnancy. However
in postmenopausal women the causes include incomplete voiding, urinary or bowel incontinence and declining oestrogen levels.

Prevention of UTIs
A great deal remains to be done in the field of prevention. Obviously, lifestyle changes may make a great difference in premenopausal women. Women
should drink lots of water, pay attention to hygiene, use as few antibiotics as possible and …. eat cranberries. In Veronika Gengs experience, it helps to
drink 300 ml cranberry juice a day. Cranberries have an antiadhesive effect on Escherichia coli, making it unable to clamp to the bladder wall. The effect lasts
for about 10 hours, therefore a twice daily dosage should be sufficient. Scientific studies on the effects of cranberry juice are not conclusive.

By Lindy Brouwer