Is antibiotic resistance a problem because urinary tract infections are so common?
Individuals with spinal cord injury have urinary tract infections so frequently, they can get to the point where they’re resistant to oral antibiotics. I have many patients who, every time they get a symptomatic urinary tract infection, can only treat it with an IV antibiotic, which is difficult because they have to come into the hospital to receive treatment. To prevent antibiotic resistance, we try not to treat a plain bladder infection. The majority of spinal cord injury patients will have bacteria in their bladder. But we don’t want to do anything about it unless they have symptoms. If someone calls in and says they have a urinary tract infection, if they’re not having fever or chills or a lot of symptoms, you want to just say, “Well, increase your fluids, kind of clean this out and work on waiting it out,” because many times their bodies will fight it off. If they start getting fever and chills or other problems associated with urinary tract infections, then you have to go in and
