neurogenic bladder and female sexual trauma with obstruction and reflux
being the most common (Huether & McCance, 2017).
Upper UTI’s occur
most commonly in women and have a high risk for the development of
sepsis. The organisms responsible are e.coli from contamination of GI tract
and Proteus and Pseudomonas widely associated with urethral
instrumentation or after urinary surgery (Huether & McCance, 2017).
Symptoms of lower UTI’s may precede the acute onset of symptoms related
to upper UTI’s. Upper UTI symptoms include fever, chills, flank or groin
pain, rigors and or confusion (especially in elderly patients (Mulryan, C,
2011).
Patient Factors: Age and Gender
Any child can get a UTI, yet girls get UTIs more often than boys (National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease [NIDDK], 2012).
Children with a condition called vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), which causes
urine to reflux at the point where one or both ureters attach to the bladder,
are at higher risk for UTIs (NIDDK, 2012).
Infants and young children who
get a UTI often have VUR; and boys younger than six months who are not
circumcised are at higher risk for a UTI than circumcised boys the same age
(NIDDK, 2012).
Women are at an increased risk of developing UTI’s than men, and the risk
is further increased in women of childbearing age (Hooton, 2012).
The
differences in anatomy between men and women are responsible for the
increased incidence in women (Lema, 2015).
Males have a longer urethra
on average, and their urethral meatus is external whereas in females, the
urethra is much shorter and the meatus is most often found on the surface
of the vulva, though it can open inside the vagina (Mulryan, C, 2011). The
