Questionnaire survey of urologists and primary care physicians' diagnostic and treatment practices for prostatitis.
OBJECTIVE
To establish diagnostic and treatment practices for chronic prostatitis by survey of urologists in Wisconsin and primary care providers in Dane County, Wisconsin.


METHODS
All Wisconsin urologists (n = 135) and primary care providers in Dane County, Wisconsin (n = 365) were surveyed by mail with a 10-item questionnaire used to establish diagnostic and treatment practices for prostatitis.


RESULTS
Seventy-eight percent of primary caregivers consider prostatitis to be bacterial in nature, whereas 59% of urologists consider it to be noninfectious. Fewer than 50% of primary care providers consider pain to be other than perineal in the diagnosis. Fewer than 50% of urologists or primary caregivers evaluate expressed prostatic secretions and few primary care providers (11%) use nonantibiotic therapy.


CONCLUSIONS
The diagnostic and treatment practices for prostatitis do not follow standard textbook algorithms.
Moon
T D
TD
Middleton Memorial Veteran's Administration Hospital and Department of Surgery, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53792-3236, USA.
D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011320:Primary Health Care; D011472:Prostatitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014572:Urology