The value of leucocyte stix results in predicting bacteriuria and urinary tract infection after gynaecological surgery.
This prospective study was carried out on 454 women to determine the value of a leucocyte dipstick test in predicting significant bacteriuria and symptomatic postoperative urinary tract infection after routine gynaecological surgery. Urine was cultured and tested for leucocytes with a dipstick test (Nephur test, Boehringer) at catheter removal and 2 days later. Among the 454 patients, 16.3% developed urinary tract infection and 53.3% had significant bacteriuria at least once. Among 898 urine specimens, taken from asymptomatic patients, 41.6% were stix-positive and 58.4% stix-negative. The predictive value of a positive stix result was 59.6% for a positive culture and 27.5% for urinary tract infection. It is concluded that, the predictive value of a positive stix for postoperative significant bacteriuria or urinary tract infection is too low to be of practical use. However, the predictive value of a negative test was high, and few patients developed symptomatic urinary tract infection when the leucostix was negative.
Schiøtz
H A
HA
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Vestfold Central Hospital, Tønsberg, Norway.