ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Esperienze Dermatologiche 2012 March;14(1):3-7

Copyright © 2012 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Non gonococcal, non chamydial urethritis in a population of male patients admitted at the Infectious Dermatologic Outpatient Clinic of Rome San Gallicano Institute

Latini A. ¹, Prignano G. ², Pascolini C. ², Giglio A. ², Moretto D. ², Impara G. ¹, Gallo M. T. ², Di Maio A. ², Cilli L. ², De Santis A. ², Vespaziani M. ², Schina I. ², Ensoli F. ², Palamara G. ¹

¹ Unità Ospedaliera Complessa Dermatologia Infettiva, Istituto Dermatologico San Gallicano – IFO IRCCS, Roma, Italia 2 Unità Ospedaliera Complessa di Patologia Clinica e Microbiologia, Istituto Dermatologico San Gallicano – IFO, IRCCS, Roma, Italia

Aim. Chlamidia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae are considered responsible of most cases of male urethritis. However, several different bacterial agents are occasionally isolated from endourethral swabs and should deserve further investigation since they might be responsible for urethritis
Methods. The prevalence of the bacterial etiology was examined during the last 4 years in a cohort of 1969 men presenting with clinical symptoms of urethritis at the Clinical Pathology and Microbiology Outpatient Clinic of our Institute. All patients presented clinical symptoms including urethral discharge, dysuria or urethral itching. All patients underwent endourethral swab to assess for the presence of a gonococcal urethritis, chamydial urethritis or urethritis caused by mycoplasma.
Results. From 2007 to 2010 1969 cases of urethritis were diagnosed. Of them (63.6%) were negative for N. gonorrhoeae and for C. trachomatis. The percentage of non gonococcal non chlamydial urethritis (NCNGU) increased from 49,2% in 2007 to 71,2% in 2010. Our results also showed an increase of the cases of uretritis caused by Mycoplasma (with increments from 14.6% to 36.2% in the last four years), Enterobacteria and Haemophilus spp.
Conclusion. In addition to the “usual” etiologic agents, other bacteria were found to cause urethritis including Enterobacteria, Haemophilus spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus spp, Streptococcus spp and Pseudomonas spp.