Urinary tract infection

Urinary tract infection is one of the most common infections to affect humans. Uncomplicated infections most commonly occur in otherwise healthy women when uropathogenic bacteria, usually Escherichia coli, enter the bladder and overcome host innate immunity. Complicated infections occur in patients with an anatomical or functional abnormality of the urinary tract. Diagnosis is made on the basis of symptoms, and diagnostic precision is improved by urinalysis. Urine culture is important in patients with severe, recurrent or complicated infection and when diagnosis is uncertain, for example in children and elderly people.