UTIs: your questions answered: part 1

In the first part of a two-part series, consultant urologist Mr Jyoti Basu answers your frequently asked questions about UTIs, defining what they are and explaining the most common ones.

What are UTIs?

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are infections of the bladder, the kidneys and the pipe joining the kidneys with the bladder, with microorganisms, commonly bacteria. In clinical terms, we define a UTI with clinical features of pain, urgency and needing to go to the toilet frequently.

In some cases, there may be a few drops of blood, and a constant desire to pass urine. Along with these symptoms that some people may have, when the urine is tested, there may be features of white blood cells, cells that the body sends to fight the infection.

There is also a culture of organisms. Classically, we present it as more than 10 to the power of 5 colony-forming units. If that is present on the microbiology report, then we say it is a UTI. However, loosely (speaking), a urinary tract infection diagnosis is very broad. It is useful to get a microbiology or a bug which grows, so that we can target the treatment to it.

Are there different types of UTIs? What is the most common?

A urinary tract infection is an infection of the urinary tract with an organism, and the most common is E. coli. It is the most common organism in Europe.

‘Straightforward’, simple UTIs are usually more common in women, but they can also occur in men. The other types are complicated UTIs, which occur when the urinary tract infection happens with an existing cause behind it. Usually, if a urinary tract infection happens in a man, it is a complicated UTI.  This is because in a woman, the length of the water pipe is 2.5 to 3 centimetres but for a man the length of the water pipe is roughly between 20 and 25 centimetres, meaning that the bug has to travel a long distance.

In women, UTIs are not uncommon because the bacteria usually live happily in the vagina and because the bladder is so close to the vagina, the bacteria have easy access into the bladder. However, for a man, this is uncommon.

Additionally, someone may suffer from a complicated UTI if they have kidney stones or a long-term catheter. They may also suffer from a complicated UTI if they do not drain the bladder, or suffer from chronic retention. They often repeatedly get these complicated UTIs.

Broadly speaking, we can divide urinary tract infections into simple UTIs, which people have, get treated and quickly go away, or complicated UTIs.

If you would like to book a consultation with Mr Basu, do not hesitate to do so by visiting his Top Doctors profile today.