Asymptomatic bacteriuria in South Indian pregnant women and treatment effect on outcome of pregnancy

Asymptomatic bacteriuria is defined as bacteriuria where colony count of same species is more than 10 colonies/ml of urine in a clean catch midstream urine sample in an asymptomatic women”. This if left untreated in pregnancy, may progress to pyelonephritis. Due to the physiological and anatomical changes in the genitourinary tract during pregnancy, urinary tract infection is more common in pregnant women. Our aim was to study the effect of asymptomatic bacteriuria on pregnancy outcome and to find the most common organism responsible for asymptomatic bacteriuria in pregnant women. This was a prospective observational hospital based study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at a tertiary care teaching hospital. A total of 85 pregnant women were included in the study. Clean catch mid stream urine sample was collected and cultured. The organism was identified and patient was treated according to the antibiotic sensitivity pattern. Patient was followed up till delivery to look for maternal and fetal outcomes. In our study, the prevalence of ASB in pregnancy was 24.7%. 61.9% were in age group of 18-25 years and 42.9% were 2 gravida. 85.7% were in 3rd trimester. Of the ASB cases 90.5% had term babies and 85.7% had babies with birth weight of >2.5 Kg. It is important to do Urine culture and sensitivity in all pregnant women irrespective of the symptoms and gestational age so as to detect ASB as early as possible and by treating this we can avoid the adverse effects in the mother and the fetus.