PROSTATITIS AND SEMINAL VESICULITIS: ACUTE AND CHRONIC

Abstract

Infection of the prostate and seminal vesicles may present a clinical picture varying from that of an acutely ill patient to that of one who is unaware of a smoldering infection. The symptoms and diagnosis of an acute infection of the prostate present little difficulty; but the insidious onset and absence of symptoms pointing to the urinary tract in many chronic infections may fail to attract the patient's or physician's attention to the prostate as the source of infection. Although usually not dangerous to life, chronic prostatic infections may cause suffering and inconvenience out of all proportion to the actual extent of the disease. Chronic prostatic infections occur with greater frequency than is generally believed. Hinman¹states that 35 per cent of all adult males have infected prostates. They occur more frequently in middle life—that is, between the ages of 30 and 50. The manifestations may be so capricious,