Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Percutaneous Nephrostomy Placements and Replacements for Malignant Urinary Tract Obstruction. A Retrospective Cohort Study

The medical records of cancer patients who underwent percutaneous nephrostomy between January 2013 and July 2020 were reviewed. Procedures were excluded if the nephrostomy was used for other procedures (e.g. double-J passage) or for non-malignant urinary tract obstruction (e.g. kidney stones). The association between antibiotic prophylaxis and UTI was assessed using association tests such as Pearson's chi-squared or Fisher's exact test. A significant level of 5% was adopted.

Definitions:

Urinary tract infection - occurs when there are signs and symptoms consistent with a local infection (fever, chills, dysuria, lower back pain, and costovertebral angle tenderness), such as cystitis (bladder or lower UTI) or pyelonephritis (kidney or upper UTI), combined with a positive urine culture (more than 104 colony-forming units of microorganisms per millilitre of urine with a catheter present or more than 105 colony-forming units of microorganisms per millilitre of urine without a catheter present).

UTI related to percutaneous nephrostomy procedure - occurs until seven days after the percutaneous nephrostomy procedure, both for first placement and/or catheter replacement.

UTI related to the nephrostomy catheter - occurs at another time, usually within 90 days of the procedure, in the presence of the nephrostomy catheter, and in the absence of another focus that would justify the infection.