GPIU, prostate biopsy side study takes place until end of November

Qualified urologists and urology departments collaborating with microbiologists and infectious disease specialists are encouraged to join the new Global Prevalence Study of Infections in Urology (GPIU) with the last five calendared dates taking place this week and by the end of this month.

With the first study dates already held in previous weeks, the remaining available dates are November 22 to 24, 29 and 30.

A world-wide internet-based audit performed annually in November since 2003, the GPIU is organised by the European Section of Infection in Urology (ESIU) of the EAU. The project aims to investigate urinary tract infections and surgical site infections in urological patients, the prevalence of hospital acquired infections and the pathogens involved, among other issues.

A prostate biopsy side study was organized for the first time in 2010 and will be repeated this year. This study provides extremely important data on infectious complications after prostate biopsies. Last year 4% of patients were hospitalized due to complications after prostate biopsies.

"We encourage interested urologists to join as the results of the study will provide national and international prevalence data on urological infections for use in further research. This will also enable participating institutions to bench-mark their performance against national and international peers," said ESIU chairman Prof. T.E. Bjerklund-Johansen.

Participating urologists and urology departments are granted certificate of infection control, CME points, on-line access to statistics, recognition or credit in GPIU publications and are provided with slides on the study results.

The GPIU study group noted the project has already obtained significant results and findings over the last eight years. Increase in resistance, serious infections and overuse of antibiotics have been determined, according to the GPIU group, even as they urge the urology community to take more concrete measures in response to the increasing prevalence of hospital-acquired infections.

GPIU also aims to cover as many countries, urologists and urological departments to closely monitor infectious problems in urology worldwide and compare the data of different geographical regions, said Prof. FlorianWagenlehner, this year's study coordinator.

"Possible risk factors and different strategies can possibly be evaluated and compared. In the last eight years more than 20,000 patients have been screened , realistically resulting in the inclusion of 2,000 urological patients with infections in the database," added Wagenlehner.