May we go on with antibacterial prophylaxis for urinary tract infections?

Abstract

Recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), with or without vesicoureteric reflux (VUR), are by far the most frequent reason for long-term antibacterial prophylaxis in infants and children today. However, the strategies of antibacterial prophylaxis for the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infection are no longer universally accepted. In infants and children at risk, the benefits of antibacterial prophylaxis definitively are not yet proven by evident data. To put antibacterial prophylaxis in its place, risk groups for recurrent symptomatic infections, ascending UTI and permanent renal damage have to be defined and the efficacy of prophylaxis in these groups has to be proved by prospective randomised studies. Nevertheless, until the results of these studies are available, antibacterial prophylaxis will remain one of the most frequently practised methods to protect risk patients from pyelonephritic damage and UTI recurrences.