Classification of prostatitis: bacterial or non-bacterial
Prostatitis may be classified as bacterial or non-bacterial, depending on the presence or absence of micro-organisms in the prostatic fluid. Prostatitis may manifest as perineal discomfort, burning, urgency, frequency and pain with or after ejaculation. Prostatodynia that is pain in the prostate will be experinced with pain on voiding or perinial pain without evidence of bacterial growth in the prostate fluid.
Acute prostatitis is a bacterial infection of the prostate gland that requires urgent medical treatment. These include E. coli, Klebsiella, and Proteus. It produces symptoms like fever,chills,tremors,painful urination and frequent urination.
Chronic bacterial prostatitis is a relatively rare condition that usually presents as intermittent urinary tract infections. It is a rare type and may not produce any symptom. It is an uncommon illness in which there is an ongoing bacterial infection in the prostate.
Chronic nonbacterial prostatitis is also called Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome. It refers to a condition affecting patients who present symptoms of prostatitis without a positive result after urine culture or expressed prostate secretion (EPS) culture. In this syndrome, men have the symptoms of prostate infection but do not have any evidence of a bacterial infection. Its symptoms are the most common urologic problem in men younger than 50 years and the third most common urologic problem in older men. Unfortunately, little is known about what causes chronic nonbacterial prostatitis or inflammatory chronic pelvic pain syndrome.
Asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis patients have no history of genitourinary pain complaints, but leukocytosis is noted, usually during evaluation for other conditions. Between 6-19% of men have pus cells in their semen but no symptoms.
