Chronic bacterial prostatitis: new therapeutic aspects.

6 cases with chronic bacterial prostatitis were reviewed. The effort and patience required to diagnose this condition accurately by means of differential urine and prostatic secretion cultures is extremely worthwhile. Cotrimoxazole, which has been suggested as a most effective antibacterial drug in chronic bacterial prostatitis, cured only 3 out of our 6 patients and then only after continuous treatment for 4 months. 2 of the remaining patients were cured by a 10 to 14 days' course of kanamycin and the third was probably cured by streptomycin. On theoretical grounds neither of these lipid insoluble drugs should be capable of penetrating the prostatic epithelium. The implications of these findings are discussed.