Adding amikacin to fluoroquinolone-based antimicrobial prophylaxis decreases infection rates after transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies (TGB), British researchers reported online in BJU International.
Deepak Batura, MD, of Northwick Park Hospital in London, and colleagues compared TGB infection rates at the hospital before implementation of a protocol that called for adding amikacin to fluoroquinolone-based TGB prophylaxis regimens (2006) and after implementation (2007 and 2008).
After clinicians started adding amikacin to the prophylactic regimen, the estimated bloodstream infection rate decreased significantly to just over one tenth of the rate in 2006. The researchers observed an estimated 60% reduction in UTI risk with the use of amikacin, but the decrease did not reach statistical significance.
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The authors said they chose amikacin as an additional aminoglycoside agent because very little resistance to the drug was detected in urine and bloodstream isolates from specimens received in their laboratory.
