ABSTRACT
Infection Definition The term urinary tract infection (UTI) is defined by urine culture showing more than 100,000 bacterial colonies in 1 ml of urine. This criterion has been widely adopted to define this condition. Its usefulness, however, depends on the method of urine collection and the clinical situation.1
The presence of bacteria in the urine is termed bacteriuria but it does not necessarily mean UTI. Bacteriuria, and even UTI, can be clinically asymptomatic. Proper assessment of UTI is more difficult in patients with neurogenic bladder dysfunction (NBD) compared to the neurologically normal patient. UTI can be acute or chronic, relapsing or recurrent. The term relapse implies infection with the same bacteria, while recurrent infection implies infection with a different strain of bacteria.2 UTI is the most common cause of fever in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.3
