[Prudent use of antimicrobial prophylaxis : Prevention of increasing antibiotic resistance]

A review of enhanced recovery after surgery concept in perioperative radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer

Radical prostatectomy (RP) is the main treatment for early-stage localized prostate cancer. With the improvement of medical technology, radical prostatectomy is mainly performed under laparoscopy or robot assistance. With the continuous deepening of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) concept in clinical practice, patients have increasingly high requirements for postoperative recovery. The ERAS concept is of great significance in the perioperative period and has been used in many surgical fields due to its ability to improve prognosis. ERAS has not yet been widely applied in urology and the research progress of other disciplines in ERAS has promoted its development in radical prostatectomy. This review summarizes the key elements of ERAS in the perioperative period of RP, aiming to demonstrate the superiority of ERAS and provide new references and inspirations for urologists.

Confirmation of negative urine culture status after appropriate antibiotic treatment prior to endourological stone procedures: Is it really necessary?

To evaluate the necessity of confirmation for a negative urine culture test outcome after an appropriate antibiotic regimen for urinary tract infection (UTI) prior to endoscopic stone removal procedures. 170 cases receiving an appropriate antibiotic treatment for culture proven UTI based on test outcomes before endoscopic stone removal were evaluated in two groups: Group 1 (n = 85) Patients in whom a second urine culture test was performed to ensure "negative urine culture" status prior to the procedures after receiving antibiotic therapy and Group 2 (n = 85). Patients receiving the same antibiotic therapy without any additional urine culture test before the procedures. Cases were comparatively evaluated with respect to the statistical significance of post-operative infective complications (fever, sepsis), duration of hospital stay and readmission rates during early post-operative period. Our findings demonstrated no significant difference regarding the rate of infective complications (presence of fever, incidence of septic findings), hospitalization period and readmission rates between the two groups. Although the presence of a negative urine status has been confirmed by urine culture test in group 1 cases, no additional urine culture test was performed with this aim in group 2 cases (negative urine culture was confirmed only with urinalysis) and the outcomes regarding the infective problems were found to be similiar. Our current findings indicate that a second urine culture test may not be a "must" if the patients receive an appropriate antibiotic regimen based on the sensitivity test outcomes for a reasonable time period.

[Antibiotic prophylaxis for endourological interventions considering antibiotic stewardship]

Perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis in endourology is used to reduce or avoid postoperative surgical site infections and complicated urinary tract infections. Special attention is paid to antibiotic stewardship strategies to avoid the continuing selection of antibiotics and multidrug-resistant uropathogens as well as collateral damage to the microbiome. The individual risk profile, the local resistance situation, the expected pathogen spectrum, the pharmacokinetics and the approval of each substance are important aspects to be considered in the indications and selection of perioperative antibiotic prophylaxis. Furthermore, applicable hygiene regulations and the surgical care of an intervention must be observed.

Preoperative urine culture - Is it necessary to prevent infectious complications following ureterorenoscopy?

To prevent postoperative infectious complications, a urinary tract infection should be either diagnostically excluded or treated prior to ureterorenoscopy (URS). URS is a frequently performed endoscopic surgery for urological stone removal. Although the urinary dipstick test represents a simple and cost-effective method to gain information about the presence of urinary tract infection, the prevailing procedure is the more expensive and more time-consuming method of urine culture. The aim of this retrospective single-center study was to compare two strategies of perioperative prophylaxes prior to URS and to evaluate their impact on postoperative infectious complications: I) Obtaining a urine culture in every patient prior to URS or II) only in case of a positive dipstick test. Therefore, we retrospectively compared 201 patients in two cohorts undergoing URS. In one cohort a urine culture was obtained only in case of a positive dipstick test of midstream urine sample and in the second cohort a urine culture was prepared for every patient regardless of the dipstick's test results. The study's end point was determined as "infectious failure" (IF), if more than one of the following criteria are fulfilled: postoperative fever, elevation of inflammation laboratory values, significant prolongation of hospital stay and readmission within short-notice. Simple and multiple logistic regressions were performed to evaluate the influence of patient characteristics and preoperative urine analysis strategy on the occurrence of IF. Patients with a score of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) > 2 had a nearly statistically higher risk (p = .09) to develop an IF than healthier patients with an ASA score ≤ 2. Prestenting was determined as a significant predictive factor (p = .04) for a postoperative IF. No difference in patients with or without IF was detected regarding the two preoperative urine analysis strategies. Sensitivity of dipstick test was 87.5% and the negative predictive value was 89.66%. We found that a negative urine dipstick test result obtained prior to URS eliminated the need for urine culturing in predicting postoperative infectious complication. This approach can reduce preoperative preparation-time and costs without affecting postoperative complication outcomes.