How should prostatitis be treated?
Your treatment depends on the type of prostatitis you have. If acute bacterial prostatitis is diagnosed, the patient will need to take antibiotics for a minimum of 14 days. Sometimes, this means being admitted to the hospital and being given intravenous antibiotics. A catheter is sometimes required if the patient has difficulty urinating. Almost all acute infections can be cured with this treatment. Frequently, the antibiotics will be continued for as long as four weeks. If chronic bacterial prostatitis is diagnosed, the patient will require antibiotics for a longer period of time, usually four to 12 weeks. About 75 percent of all cases of chronic bacterial prostatitis clear up with this treatment. Sometimes the symptoms recur and antibiotic therapy is again required. For cases that do not respond to this treatment, long-term, low dose antibiotic therapy may be recommended to relieve the symptoms. Other medications (such as those used for nonbacterial prostatitis) or other treatments (
