Condition:

Urinary tract infections (UTI)

24th July

Urinary tract infections in women is a common condition and a lot of patients will expect to get an occasional infection. The trouble is there are a lot of women who have really debilitating symptoms where they are continually having to visit the GP - it’s difficult to get appointments, they end up with antibiotic after antibiotic and life gets pretty miserable. One of the important things is that they need to be investigated thoroughly.

We need to make sure we have a proper diagnosis and have ruled out any underlying conditions that may need treating and anything that is potentially serious. Then we need to come up with a proper management strategy and treatment. One of the problems for women is that they’re getting an awful lot of antibiotics.

Management Options

Assessments:

• Urine analysis
• Flexible cystoscopy
• Ultrasound and CT imaging

Treatments options:

• Lifestyle measures
• Prolonged courses of antibiotics
• Preventative courses (prophylaxis)
• Oral vaccine
• Bladder instillations