Urinary tract infection at the age extremes: pediatrics and geriatrics
Section snippets
Pediatric patients
There are important differences in the clinical course, medical sequelae, and diagnostic and management approaches of UTIs between infants and pediatric patients and adults. Unlike the generally benign nature of UTI among young women, UTI in pediatric populations is associated with significantly greater morbidity and long-term consequences, such as impaired renal function, hypertension, end-stage renal disease, and complications of pregnancy as an adult. In children with risk factors, recurrent
Geriatric patients
The diagnosis and management of UTI among elderly persons can be particularly challenging to the clinician because of substantial differences between geriatric and otherwise healthy younger adults (Table 6). Geriatric patients with UTI frequently have an atypical clinical presentation, a higher prevalence of comorbidities, and an increased risk of drug-drug and disease-disease interactions. As such, the majority of presumably “uncomplicated” UTIs among the elderly would be characterized as
Conclusion
UTIs are common across all ages and are consistently more prevalent among females than males across almost all generations. The greatest incidence of acute, community-acquired uncomplicated UTI is found among young sexually active women. Such infections are benign conditions with no long-term medical sequelae. In comparison, UTIs that occur in the very young patient can have significant and severe long-term ramifications, including renal scarring and end-stage renal disease. As such, the
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