Table 1.

Classification of prostatitis syndromes¹

Category	Name	Characteristics
I	Acute bacterial prostatitis	Acute bacterial infection Acute urinary tract infection
II	Chronic bacterial prostatitis	Persistent bacterial infection Recurrent urinary tract infections
III	Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome	Characteristic pelvic pains, urinary complaints and sexual dysfunction Absence of other urological disorders2
Subtype a	Inflammatory subtype	Leukocytes in the expressed prostatic fluid, post-prostate massage fluid or seminal fluid
Subtype b	Non-inflammatory subtype	No inflammation in the expressed prostatic fluid, post-prostate massage fluid or seminal fluid
IV	Asymptomatic inflammatory	Asymptomatic patients with inflammatory infiltrates in prostate tissue or seminal fluid specimens evaluated for other indications 3

¹After reference [1]

²Patients with potentially significant urological causes are excluded from the chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain category. These exclusion criteria include: duration less than 3 months, presence of lower genitourinary tract cancer (i.e., transitional cell carcinoma, carcinoma in situ, or prostate cancer), active urolithiasis, active urogenital tract infection (i.e., bacteriuria, genital herpes, genitourinary tuberculosis), gastrointestinal disorders (i.e., fissure in ano, inflammatory bowel disease, fistula), radiation of chemical cystitis, acute urethritis, acute epididymitis, acute orchitis, functionally significant urethral stricture disease, or neurological disorder affecting the bladder.

³Asymptomatic patients may be diagnosed while undergoing evaluation for suspicion of prostate cancer (e.g., elevated PSA or prostate nodule) or have seminal inflammation noted during evaluation of infertility.