What is cystitis?

Cystitis is an infectious and inflammatory process of the bladder wall, most often localized in its mucous membrane. This is one of the most common urological diseases, which is a serious medical problem due to the often frivolous attitude to the treatment of cystitis on the part of patients and the widespread self-medication. Today, acute cystitis affects every second woman and every third man. The only difference is that acute cystitis in women is most often an independent disease. In men, acute cystitis in most cases accompanies such serious diseases as prostatitis and prostate adenoma.

What causes cystitis?

Cystitis is a disease with many causes, but the leading cause is infection. Cystitis of other origins is rare. Cystitis can be caused by bacteria, viruses, mycoplasma, chlamydia, Candida fungi, trichomonads, anaerobic microorganisms, tuberculosis mycobacteria, pale treponema and others. As a rule, uncomplicated urinary tract infection is caused by one microorganism, while in chronic cystitis, mixed flora is often determined.

Most uropathogenic bacteria that cause cystitis live in the large intestine and rectum. From this point of view, cystitis is an autoinfection - a disease caused by one's own opportunistic microbial flora, which acquires pathogenic properties under unfavorable conditions for the body.

Most often, inflammation of the bladder is caused by non-specific microbial flora. First of all, these are gram-negative enterobacteria: Escherichia coli, Proteus, Klebsiella, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacteria. Of the gram-positive, there are: Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Enterococcus. Despite the fact that cystitis can be caused by various types of microorganisms, the leading one is Escherichia coli.

But for cystitis to occur, the presence of a pathogen in the body is not enough. There must be suggestive factors from the bladder, the environment and the entire body as a whole. One of the main reasons associated with the occurrence of cystitis is general hypothermia of the body, especially for the female body. During hypothermia, the body's resistance to infection decreases, local immunity decreases. As a result, an inflammatory reaction develops. Other factors that provoke the development of this disease include vitamin deficiency, constant viral infections, and general fatigue of the body.

What complications can cystitis cause?

After improper treatment (or non-treatment) of cystitis, the following complications may arise:

• the rise of infection to the upper urinary tract;
• acute cystitis becomes chronic (in 25-40% of women who become ill for the first time, acute cystitis becomes chronic (three or more exacerbations per year);
• deformation of the urethra.

With prolonged cystitis, the infection from the bladder gets into the kidneys, which can lead to the development of pyelonephritis - inflammation of the kidney tissue (40% of cases of chronic cystitis are complicated by pyelonephritis). Acute pyelonephritis (or chronic in the acute stage) is manifested by high temperature and pain in the lower back on one side. Sometimes pyelonephritis is bilateral, and this situation is already life-threatening. Pyelonephritis is usually treated seriously, often in a hospital, with thorough diagnostics, massive therapy and rehabilitation. Therefore, if symptoms of acute pyelonephritis appear, it is necessary to urgently contact a specialist (urologist or nephrologist), if the temperature is not high, and if the temperature is high, call an ambulance.

Complex treatment of cystitis

• Inflammation of the bladder is exactly the disease that women are used to treating themselves...

Cystitis is really considered more of a female disease. The reason for this is largely the anatomical structure of the female body:

• • The urethra is short, its length is no more than 5 cm.
  • The vagina is located close to the anus. This creates a favorable environment for the spread of microbes into the bladder, as well as into the lumen of the urethra.
  • Pregnancy and childbirth, during which blood circulation in the walls of the bladder, as well as in the pelvis, is disrupted.
  • Decreased local immunity.

In recent decades, the social, economic, political and creative activity of women has increased, and as a result, women have begun to pay less and less attention to timely and high-quality solutions to health problems. In everyday practice, patients and sometimes doctors often take a frivolous attitude towards the treatment of cystitis. To some extent, this is facilitated by the term itself - uncomplicated infection, which means mild, not serious. Patients often self-medicate. As a result, the symptoms disappear, but the disease remains and more than 60% of cases of acute uncomplicated cystitis remain without proper treatment. For this reason, many diseases become chronic and cause complications.

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