Bladder wall-embedded bacteria associated with increased risk of recurrence after electrofulguration in women with antibiotic-recalcitrant urinary tract infection.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Antibiotic-recalcitrant recurrent urinary tract infection (rUTI) is increasingly observed in postmenopausal women. When standard therapies fail, some elect electrofulguration (EF) of areas of chronic cystitis detected on office cystoscopy. EF is thought to remove tissue-resident bacteria within the bladder walls of women with rUTI. We hypothesized that increased bladder wall bacterial burden may be associated with incomplete rUTI resolution following EF.

Materials and methods

Following IRB approval, bladder biopsies were obtained from 34 consenting menopausal women electing EF for the advanced management of rUTI. 16S rRNA FISH was performed using both universal and Escherichia probes and tissue-resident bacterial load was quantified. Time to UTI relapse after

SUBMITTER: Gadhvi JG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12922592 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature