Comparison of different antibiotic protocols for asymptomatic bacteriuria in patients with neurogenic bladder treated with botulinum toxin A

Intravesical botulinum toxin A (BoNTA) injection has been widely used for the treatment of detrusor overactivity in patients with neurogenic bladder due to spinal cord injury who do not respond to conventional treatment. There is no consensus about antibiotic prophylaxis for this procedure. We conducted a retrospective analysis of medical records of adult patients with spinal cord injury who underwent detrusor BoNTA injection between January of 2007 and December of 2013 in a rehabilitation hospital. Occurrence of symptomatic urinary tract infection (UTI) was assessed in 3 groups in accordance with their use of antibiotics (prophylactic dosage, 3 days, more than 3 days) for the treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria. All patients were performing self or assisted clean intermittent bladder catheterization and underwent a rigid cystoscopy, under general or regional anesthesia with sedation, and the drug used was Botox®. A total of 616 procedures were performed during the study period. There were 11 identified cases of UTI (1.8%) with a trend to a higher rate in the group that used antibiotics for longer time. This report shows that a single dose of antibiotics before the detrusor BoNTA injection is enough to prevent UTI. Randomized clinical trial should be conducted for definitive conclusions.