Hamidreza Abdi

A study of febrile versus afebrile patients after percutaneous nephrolithotomy regarding bacterial etiologic factors through blood and urine cultures and 16S rRNA detection in serum

PURPOSEnThe aim of this study was to determine the types of bacteria raising body temperature after a percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL).nnnMATERIALS AND METHODSnWe conducted a prospective study of 120 patients who underwent PCNL at Labbafinejad Medical Center between March and July 2006. Each patient had proven negative urine cultures preoperatively and received prophylactic antibiotics at the time of the procedure. Fever was defined as an oral temperature higher than 37.8 degrees C, and those patients with a body temperature lower than 37.8 degrees C were designated as the control group. The feverish patients were divided into two groups: The first group with a temperature below 38.5 degrees C, and the second group with a temperature of 38.5 degrees C or higher. Clinical and operative charts were reviewed to detect fever during the hospital stay. Three simultaneous laboratory tests, including postoperative urine cultures and blood cultures, plus postoperative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were carried out to determine the causative agents.nnnRESULTSnThere were no significant differences between the two groups regarding the PCR results. Also, this study demonstrated that positive PCR results (pathogen and nonpathogen species) were the same in febrile and afebrile groups.nnnCONCLUSIONnConsidering our findings, we may conclude that the effects of the bacterial etiologies in post-PCNL fever are insignificant.