urinary tract infection (UTI)

DEFINITION of urinary tract infection (UTI)

A UTI typically causes urinary symptoms such as burning with urination, frequent urination/urgency, and sometimes cloudy or bloody urine. If the infection moves upward, it can involve the kidneys (kidney infection), which is more serious and can cause systemic symptoms like fever, chills, nausea/vomiting, and flank/back pain.

Diagnosis Code(s):

N39.0 - Urinary tract infection, site not specified

• Explanation: This is the default code for a UTI when the specific location (like the bladder or kidney) is not documented.
• Note on “Use Additional Code”: Per ICD-10 guidelines, you must use an additional code (B95-B97) to identify the causative organism, such as E. coli (B96.20), if known.
• Related Alternatives:
  • N30.00 - Acute cystitis without hematuria: Used when the infection is specifically identified as being in the bladder.
  • N10 - Acute pyelonephritis: Used when the infection has reached the kidneys (often presenting with flank pain and fever).

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ETYMOLOGY of urinary tract infection (UTI)

latin Urinary (“of or pertaining to urine”) traces back to Latin urina (“urine”).​
Tract comes from Latin tractus (“course, passage”), from trahere (“to pull/draw”), which fits the idea of a bodily “passage.” Infection comes from Late Latin infectionem/infectio, from Latin inficere (“to spoil, stain”).

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RELATED TERMS

• Cystitis: bladder infection; people often use “UTI” to mean cystitis specifically.
• Pyelonephritis: kidney infection (an upper-tract UTI), often arising when a lower-tract infection spreads upward.​
• Urethritis (urethra infection) and CAUTI (catheter-associated UTI) are common related labels depending on the site/cause.

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DERIVATIONS of urinary tract infection (UTI)

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Query functionality

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Med roots Appendix A Prefixes Appendix B Combining Forms Appendix C Suffixes Appendix D Suffix forms