Prostate biopsy is an essential procedure to diagnose prostate cancer. In the traditionally most used method, so-called transrectal biopsy, the prostate is punctured with a needle through the rectum. During this procedure, intestinal bacteria can enter the prostate via the biopsy needle and cause infections. To prevent these infections, patients are given a short course of antibiotics prior to the biopsy. However, more and more patients have intestinal bacteria that are insensitive to these antibiotics. As a result, the antibiotics are not effective. This thesis shows that personalized antibiotics reduce the number of infections after transrectal prostate biopsy. In such a strategy, a smear is taken from the rectum for culture. During culture, the susceptibility of intestinal bacteria for certain antibiotics is determined. Based on these susceptibility, it is determined which antibiotic is most suitable. The strategy is easy to implement and does not have to lead to higher costs.
Sofie Tops (1987) obtained her Master’s degree in Medicine at the Radboud University in 2011 after which she worked as an Internal medicine resident. In 2017 she started her PhD research project at the Medical microbiology department of the Radboudumc. Currently, she is working as a resident Medical microbiology (Radboudumc).