Bacterial infections are important factors in decompensation, and they increase the mortality rate of
patients with
liver cirrhosis. The most common
infections among these
patients are spontaneous bacterial
peritonitis,
pneumonia,
skin infections and
urinary tract infections (UTI). This transversal study evaluated the frequency of UTI in non-hospitalized
patients with
cirrhosis followed in a
hepatology outpatient unit.
Patients with clinical, laboratorial, echographic and/or histological
diagnosis of
cirrhosis were evaluated from April 2002 to August 2004.
Patients who accepted participating in this study were submitted to clinical evaluation and the following laboratorial examinations
urine analysis,
urine culture, blood culture and hepatic function tests.
Patients with symptoms of UTI, diabetis,
prostatic disease were excluded. Eighty-two
patients with
cirrhosis were studied. Their mean age was 51 years (SD = 11); 73 percent were
male.
Hepatitis C virus was the main
etiology in 45 percent of the cases. The
Child-Pugh B functional class was observed in 52 percent of the cases.
Urine cultures were positive in 4.9 percent of these
patients. In this study of non-hospitalized cirrhotic
patients, with no symptoms of UTI, the frequency of
urinary tract infection was approximately 5 percent. The
bacteria found were E. coli and
Klebsiella pneumonia. We conclude that it is necessary to screen for UTI in such
patients.