Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title
Jent P, Berger J, Kuhn A, Trautner BW, Atkinson A, Marschall J. Antibiotics for Preventing Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Open forum infectious diseases. 2022 Jul 1; 9(7):ofac327.
Recurrent urinary tract infections are a common health problem. The only comprehensive synthesis on antibiotic prophylaxis in the last 15 years has been a guideline-embedded meta-analysis. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials published up to October 13, 2020, evaluating patients age 12 years with either 2 episodes of lower urinary tract infection (UTI) within 6 months or 3 in the past year. Placebo or antibiotics were allowed as comparators. Study quality was low. In the 11 placebo-controlled trials, the risk for developing UTI was 85% lower with prophylaxis in comparison with placebo (risk ratio [RR], 0.15; 95% CI, 0.08-0.29). In the 9 head-to-head trials, the efficacy of the antibiotic agents appeared similar: The pooled RR indicated no difference between nitrofurantoin and comparators (RR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.74-1.37), nor trimethoprim (+/- sulfamethoxazole; RR, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.89-2.03) or norfloxacin and comparators (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 0.43-1.70). Studies comparing intermittent (postcoital) with continuous strategies revealed intermittent application to be equally effective.