The purpose of this Rapid Response Report from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and technologies in Health (CADTH) was to determine the clinical effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis for the prevention of bacteraemia and septicaemia in patients undergoing transrectal ultrasound biopsy for suspected prostate cancer, and the patient risk factors for this complication.  Relevant guidelines in this area were sought. 

The authors conducted a limited literature search (PubMed, The Cochrane Library, University of York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD) databases, ECRI (Health Devices Gold), EuroScan, international health technology agencies, and a focused Internet search).  Filters were applied to limit the retrieval by health technology assessments (HTA), systematic reviews, meta-analyses, randomised controlled trials, non-randomised studies and guidelines.  The summary of their findings was prepared from the abstracts of the relevant located articles – please see the link below for details.