IDSA GUIDELINES

Infectious Diseases Society of America Guidelines

for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Asymptomatic
Bacteriuria in Adults
Lindsay E. Nicolle,1 Suzanne Bradley,2 Richard Colgan,3 James C. Rice,4 Anthony Schaeffer,5 and Thomas M. Hooton6
1
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada; 2University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; 3University of Maryland, Baltimore; 4University of Texas,
Galveston; 5Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois; and 6University of Washington, Seattle

1. The diagnosis of asymptomatic bacteriuria should

be based on results of culture of a urine specimen collected in a manner that minimizes contamination (A-II)
(table 1).
For asymptomatic women, bacteriuria is defined
as 2 consecutive voided urine specimens with
isolation of the same bacterial strain in quantitative counts 105 cfu/mL (B-II).
A single, clean-catch voided urine specimen with
1 bacterial species isolated in a quantitative count
105 cfu/mL identifies bacteriuria in men (BIII).
A single catheterized urine specimen with 1 bacterial species isolated in a quantitative count
102 cfu/mL identifies bacteriuria in women or
men (A-II).
2. Pyuria accompanying asymptomatic bacteriuria is
not an indication for antimicrobial treatment (A-II).
3. Pregnant women should be screened for bacteriuria by urine culture at least once in early pregnancy,
and they should be treated if the results are positive
(A-I).
The duration of antimicrobial therapy should be

Received 29 October 2004; accepted 2 November 2004; electronically published

4 February 2005.
These guidelines were developed and issued on behalf of the Infectious
Diseases Society of America and have been endorsed by the American Society
of Nephrology and the American Geriatric Society.
Correspondence: Dr. Lindsay E. Nicolle, University of Manitoba, Health Sciences
Centre, Rm. GG443, 820 Sherbrook St., Winnipeg, MB R3A 1R9, Canada
(lnicolle@hsc.mb.ca).
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2005; 40:64354
 2005 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.
1058-4838/2005/4005-0001$15.00

37 days (A-II).
Periodic screening for recurrent bacteriuria
should be undertaken following therapy (A-III).
No recommendation can be made for or against
repeated screening of culture-negative women in
later pregnancy.

4. Screening for and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria before transurethral resection of the prostate is
recommended (A-I).
An assessment for the presence of bacteriuria
should be obtained, so that results will be available to direct antimicrobial therapy prior to the
procedure (A-III).
Antimicrobial therapy should be initiated shortly
before the procedure (A-II).
Antimicrobial therapy should not be continued
after the procedure, unless an indwelling catheter
remains in place (B-II).
5. Screening for and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria is recommended before other urologic procedures for which mucosal bleeding is anticipated (A-III).
6. Screening for or treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria is not recommended for the following persons.
Premenopausal, nonpregnant women (A-I).
Diabetic women (A-I).
Older persons living in the community (A-II).
Elderly, institutionalized subjects (A-I).
Persons with spinal cord injury (A-II).
Catheterized patients while the catheter remains
in situ (A-I).
7. Antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic women with catheter-acquired bacteriuria that persists
48 h after indwelling catheter removal may be considered (B-I).
IDSA Guidelines for Asymptomatic Bacteriuria CID 2005:40 (1 March) 643

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SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

8. No recommendation can be made for screening for or

treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in renal transplant or
other solid organ transplant recipients (C-III).
PURPOSE

Asymptomatic bacteriuria, or asymptomatic urinary infection, is isolation of a specified quantitative count of bacteria
in an appropriately collected urine specimen obtained from a
person without symptoms or signs referable to urinary infection
[3]. Acute uncomplicated urinary tract infection is a symptomatic bladder infection characterized by frequency, urgency,
dysuria, or suprapubic pain in a woman with a normal genitourinary tract, and it is associated with both genetic and behavioral determinants [4]. Acute nonobstructive pyelonephritis is a renal infection characterized by costovertebral angle
pain and tenderness, often with fever; it occurs in the same
population that experiences acute uncomplicated urinary infection. Complicated urinary tract infection, which may involve either the bladder or kidneys, is a symptomatic urinary
infection in individuals with functional or structural abnormalities of the genitourinary tract [5]. Uncomplicated urinary
infection occurs rarely in men, and urinary infection in men
is usually considered complicated. A relapse is a recurrent
urinary tract infection after therapy resulting from persistence
of the pretherapy isolate in the urinary tract. Reinfection is
recurrent urinary tract infection with an organism originating
from outside of the urinary tract, either a new bacterial strain
or a strain previously isolated that has persisted in the colonizing flora of the gut or vagina [4]. Pyuria is the presence
of increased numbers of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in the
urine and is evidence of an inflammatory response in the urinary tract [6].
LITERATURE REVIEW
The recommendations in this guideline were developed after a
review of studies published in English. These were identified
through a search of the PubMed database supplemented by

Table 1. Infectious Diseases Society of AmericaUS Public Health Service Grading System for ranking recommendations
in clinical guidelines.
Category, grade
Strength of recommendation
A
B
C
D
E
Quality of evidence
I

Definition
Good evidence to support a recommendation for use; should always be offered
Moderate evidence to support a recommendation for use; should generally be offered
Poor evidence to support a recommendation; optional
Moderate evidence to support a recommendation against use; should generally not be offered
Good evidence to support a recommendation against use; should never be offered
Evidence from 1 properly randomized, controlled trial

II

Evidence from 1 well-designed clinical trial, without randomization; from cohort or casecontrolled analytic studies (preferably from 11 center); from multiple time-series; or from
dramatic results from uncontrolled experiments

III

Evidence from opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive

studies, or reports of expert committees

644 CID 2005:40 (1 March) Nicolle et al.

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The purpose of this guideline is to provide recommendations

for diagnosis and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in
adult populations 118 years of age. The recommendations were
developed on the basis of a review of published evidence, with
the strength of the recommendation and quality of the evidence
graded using previously described Infectious Diseases Society
of America (IDSA) criteria (table 1) [1]. Recommendations are
relevant only for the treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria and
do not address prophylaxis for prevention of symptomatic or
asymptomatic urinary infection. This guideline is not meant
to replace clinical judgment.
Screening of asymptomatic subjects for bacteriuria is appropriate if bacteriuria has adverse outcomes that can be prevented
by antimicrobial therapy [2]. Outcomes of interest are short
term, such as symptomatic urinary infection (including bacteremia with sepsis or worsening functional status), and longer
term, such as progression to chronic kidney disease or hypertension, development of urinary tract cancer, or decreased duration of survival. Treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria may
itself be associated with undesirable outcomes, including subsequent antimicrobial resistance, adverse drug effects, and cost.
If treatment of bacteriuria is not beneficial, screening of asymptomatic populations to identify bacteriuria is not indicated,
unless performed in a research study to further explore the
biology or clinical significance of bacteriuria. Thus, there are
2 topics of interest: whether asymptomatic bacteriuria is associated with adverse outcomes, and whether the interventions
of screening and antimicrobial treatment improve these
outcomes.

DEFINITIONS

review of references of relevant papers to identify additional

reports, particularly early studies not accessed through the
PubMed search. In addition, experts in urinary infection were
asked to identify any additional trials not accessed through
review. Clinical studies include prospective, randomized clinical
trials; prospective cohort studies; case-control studies; and
other descriptive studies. When appropriate, the methodological rigor of studies was evaluated using accepted criteria (e.g.,
the CONSORT statement [7]). Studies were excluded if the
study population was not adequately characterized to assess
generalizability, if procedures for patient follow-up or exclusions may have introduced sufficient bias to limit the credibility
of observations, or if there were insufficient numbers of patients
enrolled to support valid statistical analysis.
DIAGNOSIS

For asymptomatic women, bacteriuria is defined as 2 consecutive voided urine specimens with isolation of the same
bacterial strain in quantitative counts of 105 cfu/mL (B-II).
A single, clean-catch, voided urine specimen with 1 bacterial
species isolated in a quantitative count of 105 cfu/mL identifies bacteriuria in asymptomatic men (B-III).
A single catheterized urine specimen with 1 bacterial species
isolated in a quantitative count of 102 cfu/mL identifies
bacteriuria in women or men (A-II).

Pyuria accompanying asymptomatic bacteriuria is not an indication for antimicrobial treatment (A-II).
PREVALENCE OF ASYMPTOMATIC
BACTERIURIA
Asymptomatic bacteriuria is common, but the prevalence in
populations varies widely with age, sex, and the presence of
genitourinary abnormalities (table 2). For healthy women, the
prevalence of bacteriuria increases with advancing age, from

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Asymptomatic bacteriuria is a microbiologic diagnosis determined with a urine specimen that has been collected in a manner to minimize contamination and transported to the laboratory in a timely fashion to limit bacterial growth. The usual
quantitative definition is 105 cfu/mL in 2 consecutive urine
specimens [3], initially proposed after studies performed in the
1940s and 1950s [8, 9]. In these studies, a bacterial count of
105 cfu/mL in a clean, voided specimen was confirmed by a
concomitant count in a catheterized specimen in 195% of subjects in several asymptomatic clinical groups, whereas lower
quantitative counts in the voided specimen were not usually
confirmed by the catheterized specimen [8]. When the screening of asymptomatic women using multiple voided specimens
was evaluated, bacteriuria documented in an initial voided
urine specimen was confirmed in a second voided specimen,
usually obtained several days later, only 80% of the time. If 2
successive bacteriuric voided specimens had similar positive
culture results, a third consecutive specimen also yielded consistent results in 95% of cases [9, 10]. Some studies involving
women have used a more restrictive criterion of 3 consecutive
voided urine specimens collected over 3 weeks with consistent
bacteriologic results [11, 12], whereas other studies have used
a more permissive criterion of a single positive urine specimen
yielding 105 cfu/mL [13, 14]. Because transient bacteriuria is
common in healthy young women [13, 15, 16], the prevalence
will be lower if 11 specimen is required for identification of
bacteriuria [13].
Microbiologic criteria for diagnosis of asymptomatic bacteriuria in men are not as well validated. The finding of a single
voided urine specimen with 105 cfu/mL of an Enterobacteriaceae was reproducible in 98% of asymptomatic ambulatory
men when the culture was repeated within 1 week [17]. A
voided specimen with the lower quantitative count of 103
cfu/mL was 97% sensitive and 97% specific for identification
of bacteriuria in ambulatory men, but most of these patients

were symptomatic [18]. If urine specimens are collected using

a freshly applied condom catheter and leg bag, however, 105
cfu/mL is the appropriate quantitative criterion, with 90% validity for identifying asymptomatic bacteriuria in the voided
specimen, compared with a paired catheterized specimen [19,
20]. With single urine specimens obtained by urethral catheterization, lower quantitative counts of 102 cfu/mL are consistent with bacteriuria for both men and women [21, 22].
Patients who have chronic kidney disease, who are experiencing
diuresis, or who are infected with selected fastidious organisms
may have bacteriuria with lower quantitative counts in voided
specimens, but the criteria for bacteriuria in such patients are
not standardized [23].
Pyuria is evidence of inflammation in the genitourinary tract
and is common in subjects with asymptomatic bacteriuria [13,
2427]. Pyuria is present with asymptomatic bacteriuria in
32% of young women [13], 30%70% of pregnant women
[25, 26], 70% of diabetic women [24], 90% of elderly institutionalized patients [27], 90% of hemodialysis patients [28],
30%75% of bacteriuric patients with short-term catheters in
place [29], and 50%100% of individuals with long-term indwelling catheters in place [30]. Pyuria also accompanies other
inflammatory conditions of the genitourinary tract in patients
with negative urine culture results. These may be either infectious, such as renal tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, or noninfectious, such as interstitial nephritis. Thus, by
itself, the presence of pyuria is not sufficient to diagnose bacteriuria, and the presence or absence of pyuria does not differentiate symptomatic from asymptomatic urinary infection.
Recommendation. The diagnosis of asymptomatic bacteriuria should be based on culture of a urine specimen collected
in a manner that minimizes contamination (A-II).

Table 2.

Prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in selected populations.

Population

Reference

Healthy, premenopausal women

Pregnant women

1.05.0
1.99.5

[31]
[31]

Postmenopausal women aged 5070 years

Diabetic patients
Women

2.88.6

[31]

9.027

[32]

Men
Elderly persons in the communitya

0.711

[32]

10.816
3.619

[31]
[31]

2550
1540

[27]
[27]

2389
57
28

[33]
[34]
[28]

923
100

[35]
[22]

Women
Men
Elderly persons in a long-term care facility
Women
Men
Patients with spinal cord injuries
Intermittent catheter use
Sphincterotomy and condom catheter in place
Patients undergoing hemodialysis
Patients with indwelling catheter use
Short-term
Long-term
a

Age, 70 years.

1% among schoolgirls to 120% among healthy women 80

years of age living in the community [31]. The prevalence of
bacteriuria among young women is strongly associated with
sexual activity. It was 4.6% among premenopausal married
women but only 0.7% among nuns of similar age [12]. Pregnant
and nonpregnant women have a similar prevalence of bacteriuria (2%7%) [31]. Bacteriuria is more common in diabetic
women, with a prevalence of 8%14%, and is usually correlated
with duration of diabetes and presence of long-term complications of diabetes, rather than with metabolic parameters of
diabetic control [36]. Asymptomatic bacteriuria is rare in
healthy young men [37]. The prevalence in men increases substantially after the age of 60 years, presumably because of obstructive uropathy and voiding dysfunction associated with prostatic hypertrophy [27, 37]. From 6% to 15% of men 175 years
of age who reside in the community are bacteriuric [31]. Diabetic men do not appear to have an increased prevalence of
bacteriuria, compared with nondiabetic men [32].
Many patient groups with chronic disabilities or comorbidities characterized by impaired urinary voiding or with indwelling urinary devices have a very high prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria, irrespective of sex. Patients with short-term
indwelling urethral catheters acquire bacteriuria at the rate of
2%7% per day (table 2) [35, 38]. Patients with spinal cord
injury have a prevalence of 150%, whether voiding is managed
by intermittent catheterization or by sphincterotomy and condom drainage [33, 34]. Patients undergoing hemodialysis have
a prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria of 28% [28]. Twenty646 CID 2005:40 (1 March) Nicolle et al.

five percent to 50% of elderly women and 15%40% of elderly

men in long-term care facilities are bacteriuric [27]. The majority of these elderly persons have chronic neurologic illnesses,
with the highest prevalence of bacteriuria observed in the most
highly functionally impaired residents. The clinical assessment
of elderly bacteriuric residents to ascertain the presence or absence of symptoms may be problematic, and observations of
cloudy or smelly urine by themselves should not be interpreted
as indications of symptomatic infection [39]. Use of a longterm indwelling catheter [22] or permanent ureteric stent [40]
is associated with bacteriuria virtually 100% of the time.
MICROBIOLOGY OF ASYMPTOMATIC
BACTERIURIA
Escherichia coli remains the single most common organism isolated from bacteriuric women [11, 12, 41], although this happens proportionally less frequently than for women with acute
uncomplicated urinary tract infection. E. coli strains isolated
from women with asymptomatic bacteriuria are characterized
by fewer virulence characteristics than are those isolated from
women with symptomatic infection [42]. Other Enterobacteriaceae (such as Klebsiella pneumoniae) and other organisms
(including coagulase-negative staphylococci, Enterococcus species, group B streptococci, and Gardnerella vaginalis) are common as well. For men, coagulase-negative staphylococci are also
common, in addition to gram-negative bacilli and Enterococcus
species [43, 44]. Subjects with abnormalities of the genitouri-

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Prevalence, %

nary tract, including elderly institutionalized subjects, have a

wide variety of organisms isolated. E. coli remains the single
most common organism isolated from women, but other organisms, such as Proteus mirabilis, are more common in men
[27]. Men and women with a long-term urologic device in
place usually have polymicrobial bacteriuria, which often includes Pseudomonas aeruginosa and urease-producing organisms, such as P. mirabilis, Providencia stuartii, and Morganella
morganii [22, 27].
THE MANAGEMENT OF ASYMPTOMATIC
BACTERIURIA
Premenopausal, Nonpregnant Women

Pregnant Women

Women identified with asymptomatic bacteriuria in early pregnancy have a 2030-fold increased risk of developing pyelonephritis during pregnancy, compared with women without
bacteriuria [26, 5159]. These women also are more likely to
experience premature delivery and to have infants of low birth
weight. Prospective, comparative clinical trials have consistently
reported that antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy decreases the risk of subsequent pyelonephritis from 20%35% to 1%4% (table 3) [60]. Metaanalyses of cohort studies and randomized clinical trials also
support the conclusion that antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria decreases the frequency of lowbirth weight
infants and preterm delivery [61, 62]. Most of these studies
were performed early in the antimicrobial era, with nitrofurantoin and sulfonamides being the most common antimicrobials. The consistency and robustness of observations from
multiple studies resulted in screening for and treatment of
asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy becoming a standard of care in developed countries. More-recent reports of
implementation of screening and treatment programs for
asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women report a decrease
in rates of pyelonephritis for all pregnant women, from 1.8%
to 0.6% in a Spanish health care center [63], and 2.1% to 0.5%
in a Turkish health care center [64]. These are consistent with
the early reports of benefits with screening for and treatment
of asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy.
In the therapeutic studies that established the benefit of treat-

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The natural history of asymptomatic bacteriuria in premenopausal nonpregnant women has been described in short-term
[13] and long-term [41, 4548] prospective cohort studies. In
young women, symptomatic urinary infection occurred significantly more frequently in bacteriuric women than in nonbacteriuric women within 1 week after a urine culture (8% of
bacteriuric women became symptomatic, compared with 1%
of women without bacteriuria) [13]. The increased risk of
symptomatic infection remained at 1 month after new-onset
bacteriuria [13]. Long-term cohort studies also report an increased frequency of symptomatic urinary infection in women
identified with asymptomatic bacteriuria at initial screening
[46, 47]. In a Swedish study, after 15 years of follow-up, symptomatic urinary infection and pyelonephritis occurred at least
once in 55% and 7.5% of women with bacteriuria at enrollment,
respectively, and in 10% and 0% of those without bacteriuria,
respectively [47]. Women with bacteriuria at enrollment were
also more likely to be bacteriuric at follow-up, regardless of
whether antimicrobial therapy was given [41, 47, 49].
In 3 prospective studies from Wales and Jamaica that enrolled
women aged 1584 years, increased mortality was observed
among bacteriuric women [49]. The association of bacteriuria
and mortality was not as strong when the bacteriuric and nonbacteriuric groups were age- and weight-matched, and no stratification for other potential confounders was performed. In a
Swedish study that enrolled women with a median age of 58
years (range, 3572 years), there were no differences in the
rates of hypertension or chronic kidney disease between bacteriuric and nonbacteriuric women after 15 years of follow-up
[47]. In another Swedish study of women initially enrolled at
3860 years of age, the rates of progression to chronic kidney
disease and mortality were similar for bacteriuric and nonbacteriuric subjects after 24 years [41]. Bacteriuric women and
nonbacteriuric control subjects did not differ with regard to
serum creatinine levels and intravenous pyelogram findings after 35 years of follow-up in an English study [48].
A prospective, controlled trial randomized bacteriuric
women to receive a 1-week course of therapy with nitrofur-

antoin or placebo [50]. The antibiotic group had a significantly lower prevalence of bacteriuria at 6 months but not at
1 year. Episodes of symptomatic infection 1 year after therapy
occurred with a similar frequency in the treatment and placebo groups [50].
These studies support the conclusions that healthy, bacteriuric, premenopausal women are at an increased risk for symptomatic urinary infection and are more likely to have bacteriuria
at follow-up. However, asymptomatic bacteriuria is not associated with long-term adverse outcomes, such as hypertension,
chronic kidney disease, genitourinary cancer, or decreased duration of survival. The association of asymptomatic bacteriuria
with symptomatic urinary infection is likely attributable to host
factors that promote both symptomatic and asymptomatic urinary infection, rather than symptomatic infection being attributable to asymptomatic bacteriuria. Finally, treatment of
asymptomatic bacteriuria neither decreases the frequency of
symptomatic infection nor prevents further episodes of asymptomatic bacteriuria.
Recommendation. Screening for and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in premenopausal, nonpregnant women is
not indicated (A-I).

Table 3.

Findings of comparative clinical trials of antimicrobial therapy for the treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnancy.
No. of patients with pyelonephritis/
total no. of patients (%)

Reference(s)

Design

Antimicrobial therapy

LeBlanc and McGanity [55]

Randomized, not blinded

Sulfonamide and mandelamine, nitrofurantoin, or mandelamine alone;

mandelamine to term

Brumfit [56] and Condie et al. [57]

Randomized, placebo-controlled

Sulfonamides

Wren [58]

Alternating between antibiotics

and no antibiotics

Nitrofurantoin, ampicillin, sulfonamide,

and nalidixic acid to term

Initially positive result

Initially
negative
a
result

Treated
patients

Nontreated
patients

22/1143 (1.9)

3/69 (4.3)

8/41 (20)

4/67 (6.0)

55/179 (31)

NS

33/90 (37)

3/150 (2)

Elder et al. [59]

Alternating, placebo-controlled

Tetracycline for 6 weeks

6/279 (2)

4/133 (3.0)

27/148 (18)

Savage et al. [52]

Alternating, placebo-controlled

Sulfonamide to term

7/496 (1.4)

1/93 (1.1)

26/98 (26)

Kincaid-Smith and Bullen [26]

Cohort, sequential

Various

Little [54]

Randomized, not blinded

Sulfonamide to term

NOTE.

2/61 (3.3)

20/53 (37)

4/124 (3.2)

35/141 (25)

NS, not specified.

Microbiologic results from initial screening urine culture in pregnancy.

ment of asymptomatic bacteriuria during pregnancy, administration of antimicrobial therapy usually continued for the
duration of the pregnancy (table 3). A prospective, randomized
study of continuous antimicrobial therapy to the end of pregnancy compared with 14 days of nitrofurantoin or sulfamethizole, followed by weekly urine culture screening and re-treatment if bacteriuria recurred, reported similar outcomes for the
2 treatment groups [65]. A recent Cochrane systematic review
concluded that there was insufficient evidence to recommend
a duration of antimicrobial therapy for pregnant women among
single-dose, 3-day, 4-day, and 7-day treatment regimens [66].
Thus, the optimal duration of antimicrobial therapy for treatment of bacteriuria in pregnant women has not been
determined.
The appropriate screening test is a urine culture [67]. Screening for pyuria has a low sensitivityonly 50% for identification of bacteriuria in pregnant women [25]. The optimal
frequency of screening is not well defined. Women with a negative urine culture result for a single screening specimen at 12
16 weeks have a 1%2% risk of developing pyelonephritis later
in pregnancy (table 3). What proportion of this may be prevented with repeated routine screening is not known. A single
urine sample obtained for culture at week 16 of gestation was
concluded to be optimal in a Swedish study [68]. An American
cost evaluation from the viewpoint of the outcome of pyelonephritis concluded that a single screening culture in the first
trimester was cost-effective if the prevalence of bacteriuria was
12% and the risk of pyelonephritis in bacteriuric women was
113% [69].
Recommendation. Pregnant women should be screened for
bacteriuria by urine culture at least once in early pregnancy,
648 CID 2005:40 (1 March) Nicolle et al.

and they should be treated if the results are positive (A-I).

The duration of antimicrobial therapy should be 37 days

(A-III).
Periodic screening for recurrent bacteriuria should be undertaken after therapy (A-III).
No recommendation can be made for or against routine
repeated screening of culture-negative women in the later
phase of pregnancy.

Diabetic Women

Prospective, cohort studies of diabetic women report no differences in rates of symptomatic urinary infection, mortality,
or progression to diabetic complications between initially bacteriuric and nonbacteriuric women at 18 months [70] or 14
years [71] of follow-up. A randomized, controlled trial of antibiotic therapy or no therapy for diabetic women with asymptomatic bacteriuria and continued screening for bacteriuria
every 3 months reported, after a maximum of 3 years of followup, that antimicrobial therapy did not delay or decrease the
frequency of symptomatic urinary infection, nor did it decrease
the number of hospitalizations for urinary infection or other
causes [72]. There was no acceleration of progression of diabetic
complications, such as nephropathy, in bacteriuric subjects who
did not receive antimicrobial therapy. Diabetic women who
received antimicrobial therapy, however, had 5 times as many
days of antimicrobial use and significantly more adverse antimicrobial effects. Thus, there were no benefits for continued
screening and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in diabetic
women, and there was evidence of some harm.
Recommendation. Screening for or treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in diabetic women is not indicated (A-I).

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19/4735 (0.4)

Older Persons Residing in the Community

Table 4.

Elderly Institutionalized Subjects

Prospective, randomized clinical trials of antimicrobial therapy or no therapy for elderly residents of long-term care
facilities have reported no benefits of screening for or treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria (table 4) [7679]. There
was no decrease in the rate of symptomatic infection or improvement in survival [7678], and there were no changes in
chronic genitourinary symptoms [79] associated with antimicrobial therapy. Treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria was
associated with significantly increased adverse antimicrobial
effects [76] and reinfection with organisms of increasing resistance [76]. Prospective cohort studies report similar survival data for long-term care facility residents with and those
without bacteriuria among women in the United States [78],
men in Canada [80], and women or men in Greece [81].
Recommendation. Screening for and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in elderly institutionalized residents of longterm care facilities is not recommended (A-I).
Subjects with Spinal Cord Injuries

Subjects with spinal cord injuries have a high prevalence of

bacteriuria, and they also experience a high incidence of symp-

Randomized clinical trials of treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in elderly populations.

Age,
yearsa

Population

Duration of
follow-up

Study description

Outcomes

Reference

At 6 months, bacteriuria was present

in 64% of untreated vs. 35% of
treated patients; antimicrobial
given for symptomatic UTI, 16.4%
vs. 7.9% (P p NS)
Rate of symptomatic UTI, 0.92
cases per patient-year for the no
therapy group vs. 0.67 cases per
patient-year for the therapy group
(P p NS); mortality at 12 months,
18% vs. 39% (P p .11; 95% CI,
0.05 to +0.47); therapy recipients had significantly more adverse drug-related events and reinfections with resistant organisms
Rates of symptomatic UTI and mortality were similar

[73]

9 years

Similar mortality rates at 9 years

(RR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.501.47).

[78]

3 days

At 3 days, no difference in
continence

[79]

Ambulatory women

85.8

Randomized trial of single-dose TMP

or cefaclor (500 mg t.i.d. for 3
days); culture repeated at
month 6

6 months

Institutionalized women

83.5

Randomized, trial; patients were

monitored monthly and re-treated
if results were positive for subjects randomized to therapy

12 months

Institutionalized veterans

80b

24 months

Ambulatory and institutionalized women

81.9

Institutionalized incontinent women and men

84.5

Randomized trial; patients were

monitored every 2 weeks and
were re-treated if results were
positive
Randomized, placebo-controlled trial
of TMP vs. single-dose norfloxacin administered every 14 days;
cultures were performed every
6 months
Randomized trial of norfloxacin
given every 7 days

NOTE.
a
b

[74]

[77]

RR, relative risk; TMP, trimethoprim; UTI, urinary tract infection.

Data are mean age, unless otherwise indicated.

Median age.

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Large, long-term, cohort studies of asymptomatic bacteriuria

have enrolled both pre- and postmenopausal women [41, 46,
47, 49]. These studies uniformly report no excess adverse outcomes in women with asymptomatic bacteriuria. A prospective,
randomized study of nitrofurantoin or placebo also enrolled
women aged 2065 years, with a median age between 4049
years [50]. Thus, these studies report that outcomes of bacteriuria and treatment of bacteriuria in healthy postmenopausal
women are similar to those observed in premenopausal, nonpregnant women.
A prospective, randomized clinical trial of antimicrobial
treatment versus placebo for bacteriuria enrolled ambulatory
women who resided in a geriatric apartment facility and reported a decrease in the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria
at 6 months, but there was no significant difference in the
number of symptomatic episodes [73]. A prospective cohort
study of 134 ambulatory male veterans 165 years of age observed for 14.5 years, including 29 subjects with bacteriuria,
reported no adverse outcomes attributable to untreated bacteriuria [44]. Population-based cohort studies report no association between bacteriuria and survival for Swedish men
and women at 5 years of follow-up [74] or Finnish men and
women aged 185 years during 5 years of follow-up [75].
Recommendation. Routine screening for and treatment of

asymptomatic bacteriuria in older persons resident in the community is not recommended (A-II).

guria 2 weeks after therapy for catheterized subjects and no

clinical benefits of treatment [94].
A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria persisting 48
h after removal of short-term catheters in women with catheteracquired bacteriuria reported significantly improved microbiologic and clinical outcomes at 14 days in treated women [95].
Although 15 (36%) of 42 women randomized to receive no
therapy had spontaneous microbiologic resolution by 14 days,
7 (17%) developed symptoms. No women in the treatment
group became symptomatic. This study enrolled a selected
group of hospitalized women characterized by being relatively
young (median age, 50 years) and experiencing a short period
of catheterization (median duration, 3 days).
Long-term catheters. A prospective, randomized trial of
cephalexin therapy versus no antibiotic therapy for bacteriuric
patients with long-term indwelling urethral catheters in place
and drug-susceptible organisms isolated reported a similar incidence of fever among both treated and untreated patients
observed for 1244 weeks [96]. Rates of reinfection were also
similar, but 75% of reinfecting organisms in the control group
remained susceptible to cephalexin, compared with only 36%
in the cephalexin treatment group. A prospective, noncomparative study of consecutive courses of antimicrobial treatment
to eradicate bacteriuria in elderly patients with long-term catheters reported no decrease in the number of episodes of fever
with treatment, compared with the pretreatment period, and
there was immediate recurrence of bacteriuria after therapy,
often with organisms of increasing resistance [97].
Recommendation. Asymptomatic bacteriuria or funguria
should not screened for or treated in patients with an indwelling
urethral catheter (A-I).

Patients with Indwelling Urethral Catheters

Short-term catheters. Approximately 80% of acute care facility patients with short-term (!30 days) indwelling urethral
catheters receive antimicrobial therapy, usually for an indication
other than urinary infection [90, 91]. This high frequency of
concurrent antimicrobial use makes assessment of outcomes
unique to treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria problematic.
A prospective, cohort study of 235 catheter-acquired infections
among 1497 patients, 90% of whom were asymptomatic, reported only 1 secondary bloodstream infection [92]. A casecontrol study reported that acquisition of bacteriuria with indwelling urethral catheterization increased mortality 3-fold, but
the explanation for this association was not clear, and multivariate analysis found that antimicrobial therapy did not alter
the association with mortality [93]. A prospective, randomized,
placebo-controlled trial of treatment of funguria in 313 patients, more than one-half of whom had indwelling urethral
catheters in place, showed no differences in eradication of fun650 CID 2005:40 (1 March) Nicolle et al.

Antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic women with catheter-acquired bacteriuria that persists 48 h after catheter
removal may be considered. (B-I)

Urologic Interventions

Patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria who undergo traumatic

genitourinary procedures associated with mucosal bleeding have
a high rate of postprocedure bacteremia and sepsis. Bacteremia
occurs in up to 60% of bacteriuric patients who undergo transurethral prostatic resection, and there is clinical evidence of
sepsis in 6%10% of these persons [98]. Retrospective analysis
[99] and prospective, randomized clinical trials [100103] support the effectiveness of antimicrobial treatment in preventing
these complications in bacteriuric men undergoing transurethral
resection of the prostate. In one comparative trial, the efficacy
of cefotaxime was superior to that of methenamine mandelate
[101]. There is little information relevant to other procedures,
but any intervention with a high probability of mucosal bleeding

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tomatic urinary infection [34, 82]. When asymptomatic bacteriuria was uniformly treated in a cohort of catheter-free, primarily male, spinal cordinjured subjects, early recurrence of
bacteriuria after therapy was the usual outcome. After 714
days of antibiotic therapy, 93% of subjects were again bacteriuric by 30 days after completion of therapy, and after a 28day course of antibiotic therapy, 85% were bacteriuric by 30
days [83]. Reinfecting strains showed increased antimicrobial
resistance. When 52 patients with a relatively recent onset of
spinal cord injury were observed prospectively for 426 weeks,
the results of 78% of weekly urine cultures were positive, but
only 6 symptomatic episodes occurred, all of which responded
promptly to antimicrobial treatment [84]. In a small, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, rates of symptomatic urinary infection and recurrence of bacteriuria were similar among recipients of either antimicrobial or placebo for patients with
bladder emptying managed by intermittent catheterization [85].
A prospective, randomized trial of antimicrobial treatment or
no treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria enrolled 50 patients
who were treated with intermittent catheterization and reported
a similar frequency of symptomatic urinary infection during
an average of 50 days of follow-up, irrespective of whether
prophylactic antimicrobials were given [86]. Although there
have been a limited number of clinical trials, and although
interpretation of results is compromised by relatively short durations of follow-up and small study numbers, review articles
[87, 88] and consensus guidelines [89] uniformly recommend
treatment only of symptomatic urinary tract infection in patients with spinal cord injuries.
Recommendation. Asymptomatic bacteriuria should not be
screened for or treated in spinal cordinjured patients (A-II).

An assessment for the presence of bacteriuria should be

obtained, so results will be available to direct antimicrobial
therapy prior to the procedure (A-III).
Antimicrobial therapy should be initiated shortly before the
procedure (A-II).
Antimicrobial therapy should not be continued beyond the
procedure, unless an indwelling catheter remains in place
(B-II).

Screening for and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria is

recommended before other urologic procedures in which mucosal bleeding is anticipated (A-III).
Immunocompromised Patients and Other Patients

Cohort studies performed early in the transplantation era reported a high prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria among
renal transplant recipients, especially in the first 6 months after
transplantation [108, 109]. Evolution in management of transplantation has introduced routine perioperative prophylaxis,
minimization of use of indwelling urethral catheters, and longterm antimicrobial prophylaxis to prevent pneumonia and
other infections. These interventions also prevent both asymptomatic bacteriuria and symptomatic urinary infection [110,
111]. Recent studies, including a retrospective chart review
[112] and a prospective cohort study [113], have not reported
an association between asymptomatic bacteriuria and graft survival. Transplant recipients with urinary infection and poor
graft outcome are also characterized by urologic abnormalities
and are identified by episodes of symptomatic urinary infection,

rather than bacteriuria [113]. Thus, with current management

strategies, screening for bacteriuria is unlikely to provide a benefit. Some experts do recommend screening for bacteriuria, at
least for the first 6 months after renal transplantation [114].
Recent guidelines for outpatient surveillance of renal transplant
recipients, however, make no recommendation for screening
for bacteriuria [115, 116].
Screening for or treatment of bacteriuria has not been evaluated for other solid organ transplant recipients. Guidelines
for infection prevention in bone marrow transplant recipients
make no recommendation for screening for bacteriuria [117].
A small study of women with primary biliary cirrhosis and
bacteriuria randomized to receive either antimicrobial therapy
or no antimicrobial therapy reported no differences in the time
to reinfection or the number of reinfections in the 2 groups
[118]. Limited studies involving HIV-infected patients have reported no association between asymptomatic bacteriuria and
HIV infection in women, but there was an increased prevalence
of bacteriuria among HIV-infected men that was inversely correlated with CD4+ cell counts [30]. Adverse clinical outcomes
associated with bacteriuria in these populations have not been
reported.
Recommendations. No recommendation can be made for
screening for or treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in renal
transplant or other solid organ transplant recipients (C-III).
SUMMARY
Asymptomatic bacteriuria is common. Pregnant women with
asymptomatic bacteriuria are at an increased risk for adverse
outcomes, and these can be prevented with antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria. Thus, pregnant women
should be screened for bacteriuria and treated if test results are
positive. Asymptomatic bacteriuria is also a risk for patients
who undergo traumatic urologic interventions with mucosal
bleeding, and such patients should be treated prior to such
interventions. For all other adult populations, asymptomatic
bacteriuria has not been shown to be harmful. Although persons with bacteriuria are at an increased risk of symptomatic
urinary infection, treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria does
not decrease the frequency of symptomatic infection or improve
other outcomes. Thus, in populations other than those for
whom treatment has been documented to be beneficial, screening for or treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria is not appropriate and should be discouraged.
RESEARCH PRIORITIES
Many issues relevant to asymptomatic bacteriuria require further research and evaluation in appropriately conducted clinical
trials.

Exploration of the clinical and microbiologic implications,

IDSA Guidelines for Asymptomatic Bacteriuria CID 2005:40 (1 March) 651

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should be considered a risk [104]. Pretreatment of asymptomatic

bacteriuria is not beneficial for all invasive procedures. For instance, replacement of a longterm indwelling foley catheter is
associated with a low risk of bacteremia, and antimicrobial treatment is not beneficial [105, 106].
The appropriate timing for initiation of antimicrobial therapy is not well defined. Although 72 h before the intervention
has been suggested [107], this is likely to be excessive and allows
the opportunity for superinfection before the procedure. Initiation of therapy the night before or immediately before the
procedure is effective [99, 103]. The optimal time to obtain a
sample for culture before the procedure and the duration of
antimicrobial therapy are also not addressed in clinical trials.
In the absence of an indwelling catheter, antimicrobial therapy
can likely be discontinued immediately after the procedure [99,
102, 103]. When an indwelling catheter remains in place after
a prostatic resection, it has been recommended by some investigators that antimicrobial therapy be continued until the
catheter is removed [98, 99].
Recommendation. Screening for and treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria before transurethral resection of the prostate is recommended (A-I).

3.

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7.

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Acknowledgments
We thank the following individuals for review and helpful suggestions
in the development of this guideline: Elias Abrutyn, Diana Cardenas, Stephan Fihn, Kalpana Gupta, Jeremy Hamilton-Miller, Godfrey Harding,
Andy Hoepelman, James R. Johnson, Calvin Kunin, Leonard Leibovici,
Benjamin Lipsky, Kurt G. Naber, Raul Raz, Allan Ronald, Thomas Russo,
Jack Sobel, Walter Stamm, Ann Stapleton, and John Warren. Expert secretarial assistance was provided by Brenda DesRosiers.
Potential conflicts of interest. L.E.N. has received research funding
from Ortho-McNeil. R.C. has received research funding from OrthoMcNeil and has served on the speakers bureau for Bayer. A.S. has been a
consultant for Ortho-McNeil, Proctor & Gamble, Gerson Lehrman Group,
Urologix, DepoMed, Schwarz BioSciences GmbH, and SynerMed Communications. T.M.H. has been a consultant for Bayer and served on the
speakers bureau for Aventis, Bayer, Merck, and Pfizer.

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