Seven to 10 days of antibiotic treatment for urinary tract infection appears to be an effective duration for preventing recurrence, a new study finds.
Investigators examined data for more than 1,000 hospitalized patients with complicated UTIs and bacteremia (infection that has spread to the blood). When antibiotics with comparable intravenous (IV) and oral bioavailability were administered, seven days was the shortest time period associated with recovery. For all other patients, 10 days may be needed, the researchers reported.
There was no difference in the odds of recurrent infection for patients receiving 10 days and patients receiving 14 days of antibiotic therapy. But there were greater odds that the infection would return in patients with seven days of treatment versus those with 14 days of treatment.
This latter difference in outcomes did not occur in patients who received intravenous beta-lactam therapy or in those who were transitioned to highly bioavailable oral agents, meaning those that are readily absorbed and used by the body, Pranita D Tamma, MD, MPH, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore reported.
Among the 76 patients who experienced recurrent UTIs, fewer had drug-resistant infections when they had shorter-duration treatment than those with longer-duration treatment, Tamma and colleagues wrote.
Full findings were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
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