Changing the equation?

Remember Eli’s post from last month, about a tipping point at which the risk for a multiply-drug resistant infection begins to outweigh the benefit of a “discretionary” surgical procedure? I thought about that when I read this report about MDR-GNR sepsis after prostate biopsy, which may lead to a re-evaluation of PSA screening guidance. Hat tip to Jason Barker for sending me the link. The two money quotes:

“We’re all beginning to see more and more sepsis as a result of resistant bacteria after prostate biopsies,” said Peter T. Scardino, chief of surgery at the Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which does about 2,000 of the tests annually. “This is an extremely worrisome problem”

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“There has been this huge enthusiasm for everyone getting their PSA checked, which has led to a lot of prostate biopsies that have not benefited anyone,” said James R. Johnson, an infectious diseases physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis. “The more dangerous the biopsy becomes because of infection risk, the more likely it is that the balance is shifting toward harm, rather than benefit.”