[Diagnosis and treatment of community-acquired urinary tract infections in adults: what has changed. Comments on the 2008 guidelines of the French Health Products Safety Agency (AFSSAPS)].

This article comments on the new recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of adult patients with community-acquired urinary tract infections (UTIs), issued in 2008 by the French Health Products Safety Agency (AFSSAPS). The terms uncomplicated and complicated UTIs have been retained ; complicated UTIs are those with risk factor for complication (rather than with established complications). In women, age (>or= 65 years) is no longer considered itself a risk factor for complications. In men, cystitis must be treated as prostatitis. The bacterial levels defining UTIs have been revised, but levels below the threshold cannot be used to rule out UTI in the presence of symptoms. For uncomplicated cystitis, only fosfomycin-trometamol is recommended as a first-line treatment, essentially because of its ecological advantages (resistance uncommon, no cross resistance with other antibiotic classes, specific class, sparing others). For recurrent cystitis, prophylactic antibiotic treatment must be limited to cases when other preventive measures are impossible. For complicated cystitis, the principle is to delay antibiotic therapy until the resistance profile results are available, when possible (because of the high risk of resistance). Delay must be avoided during pregnancy, however, because of maternal-fetal risks. The strategy for uncomplicated pyelonephritis has been simplified : no plain abdominal radiography, antibiotic therapy shortened to 10-14 days (even 7 days for regimen or relay including fluoroquinolone), and no routine verification by urine culture. For prostatitis, PSA testing is not recommended during the acute phase of prostatitis, and a 14-day antibiotic regimen is enough for the easiest-to-treat infections.