ABSTRACT
Introduction Women with infective and non-infective cystitis have similar clinical presentations of frequency, urgency, and dysuria or bladder pain. Cystourethroscopy is an important tool in the diagnosis and management of patients with irritable bladder symptoms. On occasion, biopsy and histological review will be required to complete the diagnosis. However, infection should be excluded by urine analysis with microscopy and culture and treated if possible before performing any endoscopic assessment of the urinary tract. Cystoscopy should not be performed in the presence of overt infection but should be delayed until the infection has been treated by antibiotics. In one study women with preoperative bacteriuria had a 60% incidence of bacteremia and a 10% risk of septicemia.1 Prophylactic antibiotics should be given with cystoscopy in women with a past history of recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI) or at higher risk of UTI following urinary instrumentation: e.g. diabetes, women with a structural or functional urinary tract abnormality. The use of prophylatic artibiotics during cystoscopy is discussed in Chapter 4.
