UTI Disease Prognosis

The second most common form of infection in humans, urinary tract infections, or UTIs, are the cause of more than 8 million visits to physicians in the United States every year. The prognosis for the average person who contracts a UTI is good. She will recover quickly with treatment. For a person with a more complicated form of infection or an advanced infection, the prognosis is not so clear.

The Facts

• Urinary tract infections affect millions of people every year. A UTI occurs when bacteria infects some part of the urinary tract. This includes the urethra, the ureters, the bladder and the kidneys. The tissue of the infected organs becomes inflamed. The infected person experiences symptoms such as painful urination and foul-smelling urine. She can also experience frequent urges to urinate and pain during sexual intercourse.

Treatment

• The treatment for a UTI is straightforward. A doctor will prescribe antibiotics, and sometimes also a medication called phenazopyridine that helps to reduce frequent urges to urinate and relieves pain during urination. For most patients, a single course of antibiotics will clear the infection. This might not be the case for a patient who is infected with more than one kind of bacteria, whose infection has progressed in severity, or who experiences recurrent UTIs.

Multiple Bacteria

• Most people who come down with a UTI are infected by one kind of bacteria. E. coli is the usual culprit. A patient who contracts a UTI in a hospital may be infected with more than one kind of bacteria. A course of antibiotics may destroy one kind of bacteria that is causing the disease but leave others behind. With a longer course of antibiotics or by giving a different kind, a doctor can target all of the bacteria in the urinary tract. So long as the patient remains under a doctor's care until the bacteria is cleared, her should fully recover.

Advanced Infection

• The prognosis for someone whose UTI has become a more advanced infection is not so clear. Untreated UTIs can trigger bladder and kidney infections. With treatment, it can take a week for symptoms of an advanced infection to fade. If a kidney infection is left untreated, the patient can experience kidney damage and reduced organ function. There is also a risk that the infection will cause sepsis, which is potentially fatal.

Chronic Infection

• Some people, mostly women, experience chronic UTIs. They will experience a return of the disease on a regular basis. For women or men who have an anatomical abnormality, like a blockage in the urethra that makes UTIs more likely to occur, surgery to correct the abnormality can improve their chances of eliminating UTIs in the future. For others with no such blockage, the prognosis is not so hopeful. They will likely require more courses of antibiotics in the future to clear the returning infection.