The effect of povidone-iodine rectal cleansing on post-biopsy infectious complications

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the effect of pre-biopsy povidone-iodine rectal cleansing on post-biopsy hospitalization rates due to prostate biopsy-related infectious complications.

Material and methods

In this retrospective study, we reviewed 552 patients who underwent ultrasonography-guided transrectal prostate biopsy between 2014 and 2022. Group 1, 361 patients (January 2014–October 2020) were not applied povidone-iodine rectal cleansing, and group 2, 191 patients (November 2020–January 2022) were applied povidone-iodine rectal cleansing since we changed our biopsy protocol. All patients were given the same antibiotic prophylaxis, ciprofloxacin 500 mg, and ornidazole 500 mg twice daily starting 24 h before the biopsy and lasting a total of 5 days. Sodium phosphate enema was applied to all patients in the biopsy morning. The outcome was the hospitalization rates of patients because of infectious complications a month after the biopsy.

Results

No patients were hospitalized in the povidone-iodine rectal cleansing group because of biopsy related complications. The hospitalization rate of group 1 was 3% and there was a statistical difference between groups.

Conclusion

The povidone-iodine solution is cheap, safe and easy to apply. The povidone-iodine rectal cleansing method seems to decrease infectious complications related to prostate biopsy procedure, but we need a randomized controlled trial to confirm our study.

Trial registration

We got permission for this retrospective study from the Karabuk university ethics council with the number 2021/649 on 1 October 2021.

Keywords:

• Povidone-iodine
• infectious complications
• enema
• antibiotics

Authors’ contributions

BOSTANCI Coşkun: Project development, Data management, Manuscript writing. BOZKURT Ufuk: Project development, Data management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.