• Deborah A Williamson, Sally A Roberts, David L Paterson, Hanna Sidjabat, Anna Silvey, Jonathan Masters, Michael Rice, and Joshua T Freeman.
• Department of Microbiology, Auckland District Health Board, New Zealand. dwilliamson@adhb.govt.nz
• Clin. Infect. Dis. 2012 May 1;54(10):1406-12.

BackgroundTransrectal ultrasound-guided (TRUS) prostate biopsy is a commonly performed procedure, and fluoroquinolones are the most frequently given prophylactic antimicrobials. In the context of increasing fluoroquinolone resistance, and the international emergence of fluoroquinolone-resistant sequence type 131 (ST131) Escherichia coli, we describe a large series of E. coli bacteremia after TRUS biopsy.MethodsAll male patients admitted with community-onset (CO) E. coli bacteremia from January 2006 through December 2010 were included. Patient characteristics, treatment outcomes, and rates of antimicrobial resistance were compared between patients with TRUS biopsy-related bacteremia and other male patients with CO E. coli bacteremia. Molecular typing was performed on E. coli isolates to determine phylogenetic group.ResultsA total of 258 male patients were admitted with CO E. coli bacteremia. Of these, 47 patients (18%) were admitted after TRUS biopsy. Patients who had undergone TRUS biopsy were twice as likely to require intensive care admission (25% vs 12%) and had significantly higher rates of resistance to gentamicin (43%), trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole (60%), and ciprofloxacin (62%) as well as all 3 agents in combination (19%). Thirty-six percent of post-TRUS biopsy patients did not receive active empirical antibiotic therapy. The ST131 clone accounted for 41% of all E. coli isolates after TRUS biopsy.ConclusionsE. coli bacteremia can be a life-threatening complication of TRUS biopsy. Infecting strains are frequently multidrug-resistant and resistant to common empirical antibiotic agents. E. coli ST131 is an important cause of sepsis after TRUS biopsy. Further studies should evaluate colonization with fluoroquinolone-resistant E. coli as a risk factor for postbiopsy sepsis.

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