Introduction: To evaluate therapeutic results till 5 years after therapy of obstructive pyelonephritis (OPN) emphasizing regular follow-up. Material and Methods: During 5 years, 57 patients with OPN were treated. The patients' charts were reviewed retrospectively for clinical data. These were completed by a questionnaire. Results: In the group of 57 patients (average age 56 years), about two third were women. Urolithiasis (65%) and tumors (21%) were the main causes of obstruction; fever (91%) and loin pain (86%) the main symptoms. Three fourth of the patients showed renal insufficiency and nearly 50% anemia. E. coli and Proteus spp. were the dominating organisms. Sonography detected obstruction in 93% cases. In one third of cases, CT scan was added; 81% percutaneous nephrostomy and 19% ureteral stenting were the initial methods of urinary drainage. During therapy, 23% nephrectomies (19% complete, 4% partial) were performed. Long-term follow-up showed 11% recurrent OPN and 33% recurrent UTI. Conclusions: After diagnosis of OPN, primary nephrostomy or ureteral stenting and antibiotic therapy are the first measures. If recurrent urinary tract infections or OPN occur, long-term follow-up and low-dose antibiotic prophylaxis may be discussed.

Die Prostatitis ist eine häufige und komplexe Erkrankung. Im Verlauf der letzten 40 Jahre haben sich verschiedene Stadien der wissenschaftlichen Wahrnehmung, zum Teil mit Erfolgen und zum Teil mit Irrwegen aufgezeigt. Während die akute Prostatitis fast immer einer akuten Infektion entspricht, finden sich beim chronischen Prostatitissyndrom nur in etwa 10% der Fälle ursächliche Erreger. Das Erregerspektrum entspricht im Wesentlichen dem von komplizierten Harnwegsinfektionen mit vornehmlich Gram-negativen Erregern. In manchen Studien werden aber auch atypische Erreger, wie Chlamydia trachomatis und Mykoplasmen gefunden. Bei der überwiegenden Mehrzahl der Fälle werden multifaktorielle Ursachen angenommen. Dies führte schließlich zur Phänotypisierung der Beschwerdesymptomatik mit multimodalen Therapiekonzepten. Bei eindeutig infektiöser (Mit-)Ursache der Beschwerden haben Antibiotika – allen voran Fluorchinolone – nach wie vor einen hohen Stellenwert. Ansonsten erfolgen multimodale Therapiestrategien, die auf Evidenz-basierten monotherapeutischen Studien aufbauen. Bisher liegen nur wenige Studien zu multimodalen Kombinationstherapien vor. The prostatitis syndrome is a frequent and complex disease. During the last 40 years the scientific perception has shifted between sometimes success and sometimes disappointment. Whereas acute prostatitis is most frequently considered an infectious disease, in only about 10% of cases with a chronic prostatitis syndrome can pathogens be identified. The bacterial spectrum is similar to that of complicated urinary tract infections with mainly Gram-negative pathogens. In some studies atypical pathogens, such as Chlamydia trachomatis and mycoplasmas, can be found in a considerable proportion. In most cases, however, a multifactorial aetiology is discussed. This has lead to a phenotyping directed multimodal treatment approach, considering the main symptoms. In prostatitis of microbial origin antibiotics, particulary fluorquinolones, are still the therapy of first choice. In the other cases multimodal treatment strategies are used considering evidence-based monotherapeutic studies. The evidence for multimodal combination treatment is still sparse.

Background: In clinical practice, plant extracts are an option to treat mild-to-moderate lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostate hyperplasia (LUTS/BPH). However, only a few herbal extracts have been investigated in long-term placebo-controlled studies. The safety and efficacy of a well-tolerated proprietary pumpkin seed soft extract (PSE) were investigated in two randomized placebo-controlled 12-month studies (Bach and GRANU study). Both trials studied LUTS/BPH patients with an International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) ≥13 points at baseline. The Bach study demonstrated positive effects of PSE compared to placebo, but no difference between treatments was observed in the GRANU study. We aimed to assess the efficacy of PSE in a meta-analysis using the patient-level data of these two studies. Methods: Pooled analysis was performed in the intention-to-treat set using last-observation-carried-forward (ITT-LOCF). An IPSS improvement of ≥5 points after 12 months of therapy was the predefined response criterion. Logistic regression and ANCOVA models included the covariables treatment group, study, center size, and baseline IPSS. Each analysis was repeated for the per-protocol (PP) set. Results: The ITT/PP analysis sets consisted of 687/485 and 702/488 patients in the PSE and placebo groups, respectively. At the 12-month follow-up, the response rates in the PSE group were 3% (ITT) and 5% (PP) higher than those in the placebo group. The odds ratio of response obtained by logistic regression analysis for comparing PSE versus placebo was 1.2 (95% CI 0.9, 1.5), favoring PSE (ITT- LOCF). For the IPSS change from baseline to 12 months, the ANCOVA estimated difference between the treatment groups was 0.7 points (95% CI 0.1, 1.2) in favor of PSE. The variables study, baseline IPSS, and center size had a relevant influence on treatment response. Conclusion: Although the Bach and the GRANU study showed contradictory results, the analysis in a pooled form still pointed towards an advantage of PSE; namely, more patients in the PSE group showed an IPSS improvement of at least 5 points after 12 months. Therefore, the results of this meta-analysis suggest that patients with moderate LUTS/BPH may benefit from PSE treatment in terms of symptomatic relief.