Effect of 7 vs 14 Days of Antibiotic Therapy on Resolution of Symptoms Among Afebrile Men With Urinary Tract Infection: A Randomized Clinical Trial
RCT (n=272) found 7 days of antibiotics was non-inferior to 14 days for symptom resolution (93.1% vs 90.2% respectively, lowerbound 97.5%CI = -5.2%, non-inferiority margin -10%). Recurrence of symptoms occurred in 9.9% vs 12.9% (no significant difference).
Source:
Journal of the American Medical Association
SPS commentary:
The antibiotics used were 7 or 14 days of ciprofloxacin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole.
A related editorial discusses this research noting the positive finding for the 7 day course, and describing some limitations of the study, including lack of data for other antibiotics commonly used for UTI, and approximately one third of patients had no microbiological evidence of infection due todefinition of UTI used in the study,which could bias results in favour of 7 day treatment being non-inferior.