The length of antimicrobial therapy in upper vs. lower urinary tract infection of childhood. Comparison of 3-day versus 14-day treatment of lower urinary tract infection in children. Duration of treatment for urinary tract infections in children. Optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for uncomplicated urinary tract infection in older women: a double-blind randomized controlled trial. Acute uncomplicated lower urinary tract infections in general practice: clinical and microbiological cure rates after three- versus five-day treatment with trimethoprim. Single dose gentamicin treatment of urinary infections in children. Single dose treatment of cystitis in children. Single-dose cefotaxime in the treatment of urinary tract infections in children: a randomized clinical trial. Single dose antibiotic therapy is not as effective as conventional regimens for management of acute urinary tract infections in children.
235 infants and children were randomized to a 10-day and 42-day treatment group and followed-up for 12 months after their first urinary tract infection. The anatomical level of each symptomatic infection was determined using simple laboratory criteria. The two regimens prescribed were equally effective in eradicating the infection, but after the discontinuation of the 10-day treatment with sulfafurazole, 17 (23%) of 73 patients with their upper urinary tract infection experienced a recurrence within one month, as compared to only one (1) of 76 subjects in the 42-day therapy group. After the phase of early recurrence, there was no difference in recurrence rate between these groups. The early recurrences were associated with the patient's early age and a short duration of symptoms before therapy. The recurrence rate of first lower UTI after 10-day therapy was significantly lower than that after 42-day treatment. The duration of antimicrobial therapy for childhood urinary tract infection should be adjusted according to the patient's age and the anatomical level of the infection. 10-day treatment may not be sufficient to prevent early recurrence of pyelonephritic infections in infants under 6 months of age. A total of 87 children were treated for lower urinary tract infection. The infection site was determined on the basis of symptoms and laboratory findings. The patients were assigned to four groups, medicated for 3 and for 14 days with nitrofurantoin or cotrimazole. Results from the short and long-term therapies have not shown any significant differences: 9 out of 43 patients in the 3-day therapy group and 8 out of 44 in the 14-day group presented recurrences within one month. In a double-blind trial 45 children aged 6 months to 14 years with Escherichia coli infections of the urinary tract were given co-trimoxazole for two weeks and then allotted at random to one of two treatment groups for the remainder of six months; one continued with the active drug and the other with dummy tablets of identical appearance. Of the 24 children who took co-trimoxazole for two weeks and the 21 who took it for six months, 11 and 10, respectively, remained without further infections for at least a year. Over 90% of the reinfections occurred within five months of stopping the antibiotics, and the longer treatment did not cause any delay in their appearance. Thus probably a six-month course of treatment is no more likely to achieve a cure than a two-week course; nevertheless, no infection occurred during treatment, and there may be an advantage in continuing with antibiotics in small dosage. The optimal duration of antibiotic therapy in older patients with uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) is still a matter of debate. The aim of this randomized controlled double-blind noninferiority trial was to compare the efficacy and safety of 3-day and 7-day courses of oral ciprofloxacin for uncomplicated symptomatic UTI in older women.
                A total of 183 women at least 65 years of age with acute uncomplicated UTI were recruited from ambulatory clinics and hospital acute care units. Patients with pyelonephritis, contraindications to fluoroquinolones, recent use of antibiotics, urinary tract abnormalities and diabetes mellitus were excluded. Women were randomly assigned to receive either ciprofloxacin 250 mg twice daily orally for 3 days followed by placebo for 4 days (the 3-day group, 93 patients) or ciprofloxacin 250 mg twice daily orally for 7 days (the 7-day group, 90 patients). Bacterial eradication, clinical improvement and occurrence of adverse events were determined 2 days after completion of treatment, and occurrence of reinfection or relapse were determined 6 weeks after completion of treatment. Bacterial eradication and relapse were determined by urine culture. Double-blind procedures were maintained throughout data collection.
                The proportion of patients with bacterial eradication at 2 days after treatment was 98% (91/93) in the 3-day group and 93% (83/89) in the 7-day group (p = 0.16). The frequency of adverse events, including drowsiness, headache, nausea or vomiting, and loss of appetite, was significantly lower in the 3-day group.
                These results suggest that a 3-day course of antibiotic therapy is not inferior to a 7-day course for treatment of uncomplicated symptomatic UTI in older women, and that the shorter course is better tolerated. Epidemiological studies indicate that acute uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) in women can be successfully treated with short treatment regimens. However, the findings from the literature do not match experiences in daily practice.
                A randomised, controlled trial evaluating the microbiological and clinical (self-reported) cure rates of a three-day vs. five-day treatment regimen with trimethoprim for UTI in women.
                No statistically significant difference in bacteriological cure rate was found between the three-day and five-day regimen. One day after the shorter regimen 44% of women considered themselves as 'not-recovered' due to persistence of the symptoms compared with 35% after the five-day treatment (p > 0.05). Three days after therapy these percentages were 30 and 25% respectively.
                The relatively high percentage of persistent symptoms one day after the three-day regimen might be responsible for general practitioners believing that short regimens are not successful. It is therefore advisable that if urine samples are controlled to wait at least three days after finishing treatment. Sixty-nine children with urinary tract infections were randomly allocated to single dose gentamicin therapy (n = 39) or a seven day course of an appropriate antibiotic (n = 30). During the following six weeks the response to treatments did not differ and this was not altered by the child's clinical diagnosis, past history of infection or presence of radiological abnormalities. The poorest response was in those children with a history of recurrent infections (p less than 0.01) and/or radiological abnormality (p less than 0.02). Single dose therapy had significantly less suppression upon rectal (p less than 0.001) and periurethral (p less than 0.02) flora. There was a tendency for those not cured by single dose treatment to relapse whereas those treated by conventional therapy tended to be reinfected. The efficacy of single dose treatment with trimethoprim compared to a 5-day course with the same drug was investigated in 100 children, 3-12 years, with isolated episodes of symptomatic non-febrile urinary tract infection. Cure, defined as sterile urine during the first week after treatment, was achieved in 74% (37/50) in the single dose group compared to 86% (43/50) in the 5-day treatment group. The difference was not statistically significant (chi 2 = 2.25, p = 0.134 two-tailed). The cure rates in relation to P-fimbriation of the infecting E. coli strains were similar in the two groups. During the 6 month follow-up, six children in each treatment group had one or more reinfections. Extended studies are needed to conclude if single dose and conventional treatment courses are equally effective. Thirty-seven patients with a median age of 5 years with symptomatic lower or upper urinary tract infection, documented by a clean-catch midstream urine culture and sediment examination, completed a randomized study comparing the effectiveness of a single dose of cefotaxime with 10-day treatment with an antibiotic chosen by in-vitro sensitivities. Eighteen patients were randomly assigned to the cefotaxime group (50 mg/kg/im route) and 19 patients were placed in the 10-day therapy group. In the cefotaxime group 4/18 patients had an upper urinary tract infection and 11/18 had a history of recurrences. The causal organisms were Escherichia coli (16 cases) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (two cases). All patients had sterile urine 48 hours after therapy, and 2/18 cases had recurred 28 days later. In the 10-day treatment group, 7/19 patients had an upper urinary tract infection, 6/19 had a history of recurrences, 17 cases were caused by E. coli, one case by Citrobacter freundii and one case by K. pneumoniae. Eighteen of 19 patients had sterile urine 48 hours after therapy and 1 case remained symptomatic with positive culture. The other 18 patients had no recurrences. Rates of cures and recurrence in the compared groups were not statistically different (P greater than 0.05). One hundred thirty-two children with acute urinary tract infection were randomly assigned to receive trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in one dose, two doses daily for 3 days or two doses daily for 7 days. The patient characteristics, etiologic agents and frequency of roentgenologic abnormalities were similar for the three treatment groups. There was no significant difference in bacteriologic cure rates for the single dose regimen (93%) and multidose regimens (96%). The difference in rates of recurrent urinary tract infection between the single dose (20.5%) and 3-day (5.6%) and 7-day (8%) regimens was statistically significant (P = 0.033). A single dose of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole is inadequate treatment for infants and children with acute urinary tract infection.
Although antibiotic treatment is effective for children with UTI, there are insufficient data to answer the question of which type of antibiotic or which duration is most effective to treat symptomatic lower UTI. This review found that 10-day antibiotic treatment is more likely to eliminate bacteria from the urine than single-dose treatments. No differences were observed for persistent bacteriuria, recurrence or re-infection between short and long-course antibiotics where the antibiotic differed between groups. This data adds to an existing Cochrane review comparing short and long-course treatment of the same antibiotic who also reported no evidence of difference between short and long-course antibiotics.