Effect of urogenital cleaning with paper soap on bacterial contamination rate while collecting midstream urine specimens.

CONTEXT: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the major health problems. Urine culture is considered as a gold standard method for the diagnosis of UTI. But, improper sample collection can lead to contamination with normal urogenital flora. Use of any portable disinfectant that can reduce contamination rate would be the significant help in urine culture interpretation.

AIMS: To observe the effect of urogenital cleaning with paper soap on bacterial contamination rate while collecting specimens.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional comparative study was done in 600 patients aged 15-45 years, equally divided into three groups. The first group was given sterile container and instructed to collect midstream clean catch urine (MSU) after urogenital cleaning with provided piece of paper soap. The second group was given sterile container and strictly instructed to collect the MSU sample after urogenital cleansing by tap water only. The third group was given the sterile container and asked for midstream urine. Collected specimens were inoculated in CLED media, incubated aerobically for overnight at 37°C. Reporting of culture was done according to the guideline of American Society of Microbiology.

RESULTS: The contamination rate in the three groups were 6.0%, 13.0%, and 27.5%, respectively (P value < 0.05), which was statistically significant.

CONCLUSIONS: Contamination rate was significantly lower in group who provided urine specimen after urogenital cleaning with paper soap. Thus, cleaning the urogenital area may reduce the need of the repeat sample to rule out actual contamination and prevent from the unnecessary antibiotic treatment.