“TREXIT 2020”: why the time to abandon transrectal prostate biopsy starts now

In 1847, 20 years before germ theory was popularised by Louis Pasteur, the Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis famously reduced maternal mortality from post-partum sepsis from 16 to 1% simply by encouraging hand hygiene among his peers [ 1 ]. Despite the evidence, many physicians of the day were offended by the assertion that they themselves may be the cause of patient deaths and rejected Semmelweis’s life-saving advice. Aged just 47, he suffered a nervous breakdown, was committed to an asylum and died within 2 weeks, ironically and tragically, from a gangrenous wound.