When a 68-year-old man in Norway died of infection after a transrectal biopsy, his daughter urged change. Four years later, that campaign looks to be a success ― but the US has moved slowly to adapt.
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About two million American men undergo transrectal biopsies each year to diagnose prostate cancer or to monitor low-risk and favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancers for active surveillance (AS).
Men on AS, like me, who have undergone routine transrectal biopsies may be warned that we face a 1-3% risk for sepsis infections in which nasty microbes from the rectum are spread to the bloodstream and wreak havoc. Many are not warned at all.
But it gets worse: A number of these men die or suffer disability from sepsis from transrectal biopsies, according to Richard Szabo, MD, a clinical associate professor of urology at the University of California Irvine.