Objective: We aimed to find out the prevalence of symptomatic bacteriuria (urinary tract infection) and its associated factors at admission, the frequency of urinary tract infection (UTI), cultured microorganisms and associated factors with UTI during rehabilitation period and also to observe the discharge urinary drainage methods after inpatient bladder management (IBM) in spinal cord injured (SCI) patients.
 

Materials and Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of 63 SCI patients and prospectively evaluated a cohort of 52 of these patients for UTI.  The association of UTI with demographic and clinical characteristics  of  63 patients were investigated at admission. 52 patients were followed up to detect UTI during rehabilitation period. The patients were grouped according to the frequency of UTI and risk factors for UTI were determined by comparing the groups. The species (spp) of microorganism resulting in UTI were also obtained. 
 

Results: The patients with UTI were associated with pyuria at admission (p=0.000). In the urine culture samples mostly yielded were Escherrischia coli (E coli) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The patients experienced more than one UTI had longer length of stay compared to other patients (P=0.000). The ratio of patients with intermittent catheterization (IC) were 68,2 % and 21% of them were catheter-free at discharge.
 

Conclusion: SCI patients had high ratio of bacteriuria at admission. Pyuria was the laboratory parameter indicating UTI. E. coli was the most often observed microorganism affecting SCI patients during IBM. The number of UTI episodes was associated with length of stay. Turk J Phys Med Rehab 2009;55:55-9.