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Urinary Tract Infection Introduction Urinary tract infection (UTI), the most common of all bacterial infections, affects humans throughout their life span. Twenty percent to 35% of all women experience at least one episode of UTI sometime in their lives. UTI occurs in all populations, from the neonate to the geriatric patient, but has a particular impact on females of all ages, males at the two extremes of life, kidney transplant patients, and anyone with functional or structural abnormalities of the urinary excretory system. Because of the wide range of individuals affected and because UTI is frequently superimposed on other medical problems, physicians in virtually all specialties are called on to deal with this clinical problem. Not only is UTI common, but the range of clinical effects it can produce is exceptionally broad, from acute pyelonephritis with gram-negative sepsis to asymptomatic bacteriuria and even so-called symptomatic abacteriuria. It is clinically important to classify UTIs by type of infection, presence or absence of symptoms, tendency to recur, and presence or absence of complicating factors (Table 1).Recurrent infections can be subdivided into reinfections caused by new bacterial strains and relapses caused by the same strains that caused the preceding infections. Complicating factors are host factors facilitating establishment and maintenance of bacteriuria or worsening the prognosis of UTIs engaging the kidneys. Table 1. Classification of urinary tract infection Classification by Types of UTIs Type of UTI Cystitis Pyelonephritis Asymptomatic bacteriuria Symptoms Symptomatic Asymptomatic Recurrences Sporadic Recurrent Relapse Reinfection Complicating factors Uncomplicated Complicated Epidemiology It has been calculated that worldwide there are at least 150 million cases of symptomatic UTIs each year. Because many UTI patients have recurrent infections, the number of individuals who have UTIs each year is lower than