A patient who was troubled by the persistent passage of prostatic calculi following transurethral prostatectomy is reported. The pathogenesis of these calculi is postulated.
Recto-prostatic fistula is a rare complication of prostatic surgery, occurring usually because surgical planes are not appreciated. We describe a combined abdomino-perineal approach for the repair of a large recto-prostatic fistula with the interposition of omentum and gracilis without formally closing the fistula in layers.
The diagnosis of mullerian duct or utricular cyst should be considered in a child with urinary difficulties and a palpable midline, anterior rectal mass. Endoscopic cannulation of the cyst has been found to be the most useful diagnostic test. Infection should be treated with the appropriate antibiotics before definitive treatment. Surgical excision offers the best result. The transperitoneal and posterior parasacral approaches have been described but we favour the transvesical, transtrigonal approach which we find highly satisfactory. The risk of malignancy at a later age is an added indication for surgery.
Burkholderia pseudomallei is recognized to cause severe and fatal infections. Most of the infections caused by this facultative intracellular gram-negative bacterium are pneumonia, soft tissue, genito-urinary and central nervous system infection. We report an unusual case of primary prostatic abscess complicated by perianal abscess caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei. Melioidosis related anorectal infections have not been previously reported in the literature.
Prostate cancer is not common in south-east asia and in particular there are only scarce reports on the characteristics of Malaysian men with prostate cancer. A retrospective study where all prostate specimens sent to the pathology department during the period 1st January 1996 to 30th June 1998 were reviewed. A total of 131 prostate specimens were reviewed and these consisted of prostatectomy specimens, transurethral resection specimens and trucut biopsy specimens. Only 114 patients' case notes were evaluated. Data reviewed were age, race, presenting symptoms, clinical findings and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level. Overall incidence of carcinoma of the prostate was 19.0%. The incidence of carcinoma of the prostate with serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of 4.1 to 20.0 ng/ml was only 10% and 60.5% of patients had evidence of subclinical histological prostatitis. The mean age of men with carcinoma of the prostate was 71.3 years and there was no differences in the incidence of carcinoma of the prostate among the 3 major ethnic groups (Malays, Chinese and Indian). About three-quarter of the patients with carcinoma of the prostate presented with lower urinary tract symptoms, a third had haematuria and about a tenth of patients presented with urinary retention. The majority of patients presented with metastatic disease (66.7%) with a mean PSA of 1476.8 ng/ml. A significant proportion of men with prostatic diseases attending the University of Malaya Medical Center had prostate cancer (19.0%). A small proportion of men with serum PSA in the range of 4.1 to 20.0 ng/ml had prostate cancer and this is thought to be due to the background histological prostatitis. The majority of patients presented late.
Melioidosis is caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Gram-negative bacillus. Melioidosis can affect many organs, including the prostate. However, prostatic abscess due to melioidosis is uncommon. We describe five cases of melioidosis with prostatic abscess. Four of five patients had diabetes mellitus and had more than one organ involvement. The diagnosis of prostatic abscess in our patients was only made with computed tomography of the abdomen and pelvis. None of our patients underwent surgical drainage and all remained well after treatment with antibiotics, except for one mortality secondary to severe septicaemia.
Primary prostatic melioidosis is a rare presentation of melioidosis even in melioidosis endemic areas. We report a case of a 58-year-old man with underlying diabetes mellitus who presented with a 5-day history of high-grade fever associated with lower urinary tract symptoms. Suprapubic tenderness and tender prostatomegaly were noted on examination. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan confirmed the presence of a prostatic abscess. Both blood and prostatic pus cultures grew Burkholderia pseudomallei. He was initially started on intravenous ceftazidime, followed by an escalation to intravenous meropenem. He was discharged home with oral amoxicillin-clavulanate and doxycycline after completing 12 days of meropenem. Unfortunately, his compliance to oral antibiotic therapy was poor, and he succumbed to the disease.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer type in men and is the second cause of death, due to cancer, in patients over 50, after lung cancer. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a widely used tumor marker for prostate cancer. Recently, PSA is discovered in non-prostatic cancer tissues in men and women raising doubts about its specificity for prostatic tissues. PSA exists in low serum level in healthy men and in higher levels in many prostate disorders, including prostatitis and prostate cancer. Thus, a supplementary tumor marker is needed to accurately diagnose the cancer and to observe the patient after treatment. Recently, soluble human leukocyte antigen-G (sHLA-G) has been introduced as a new tumor marker for different cancer types, including colorectal, breast, lung, and ovary. The present descriptive-experimental study was carried out including patients with malignant prostate tumor, patients with benign prostate tumor, and a group of health men as the control group, as judged by an oncologist as well as a pathologist. After sterile blood sampling, sHLA-G was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in each group. The data was then analyzed using one-way ANOVA. P≤0.05 was considered as statistically significant. The results showed that the mean of sHLA-G level was high in patients. Also, it was found that there was a significant difference in sHLA serum level between the three groups. The data revealed that sHLA-G can be a novel supplementary tumor marker in addition to PSA to diagnose prostate cancer.
Introduction: Melioidosis, an infection caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei is endemic in South East Asia and Northern Australia. It can affect many organs in the body such as lung, liver, spleen, bone, prostate, brain and soft tissues. Objective: This study aims to detect the presence of prostatic abscess in patients with a positive blood culture for Burkholderia pseudomallei with computed tomography (CT) of the abdomen and pelvis and to correlate it with the clinical presentation. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective observational study conducted in all melioidosis patients who had CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis. The location and size of any focal lesions seen on CT were recorded. Clinical data such as fever and urinary symptoms were also recorded. Results: 15 patients had CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis. Five patients were diagnosed to have prostatic abscess. Out of the five patients, only two had urinary symptoms. The other three had prolonged high grade fever without any urinary symptoms. Conclusions: Melioidosis prostatic abscess is not uncommon in patients with positive blood culture of Burkholderia Pseudomallei (33% in this series). Most patients do not present with any urinary symptoms.