BACKGROUND: To evaluate the moment of the beginning of bacteriuria and the most frequently germ related to the urinary infection in patients submitted to delayed vesical catheterization. METHODS: During September 2003 to October 2004, patients thirteen-years-old and up, submitted to elective surgeries with long-term vesical catheters were evaluated. By the insertion of the catheter the first urine sample was drawn, and denominated sample 1; other samples were collected subsequently in 12-hour intervals. The samples were analyzed as for the presence of bacteriuria, pyuria, and culture. Urinary tract infection was defined as the presence of 100.000 or more units of bacterial colonies, after the isolation of the same bacterium or fungus in urine cultures from different samples, within the period of catheterization; pyuria was considered positive with a count of 10.000 leucocytes/mm³ or more; and bacteriuria, with the presence of bacteria of a single species in the analyzed sample. RESULTS: The group was composed of 63 patients, 46 male (73%) and 17 female (27%). Only 3 of them presented pyuria in the first collection, with values of 12.000,17.000 and 20.000 leuc/mm³. In the first samples (#1) there was variation from 1.000 to 20.000 leuc/mm³, all of them with negative culture. The number of samples varied from 1 to 8 (84h after the insertion of the vesical catheter). The pyuria in the final samples varied from 1.000 to 204.000 leuc/mm³, all with negative culture and bacteriuria. Sixty two patients (98,4%) received short duration antibiotics for the surgical procedure. CONCLUSION: Until the maximum of 84h - 3,5 days -there was not infection in none of the collected and cultivated samples. The antibiotic fro the surgery itself might have contributed to the observed result.
Urinary tract infections; Bacteriuria; Urinary catheterization; Urine; Urinalysis
