Immediate versus conditional treatment of uncomplicated urinary tract infection - a randomized-controlled comparative effectiveness study in general practices

Abstract

Abstract Background Uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) are usually treated with antibiotics as recommended by primary care guidelines. Antibiotic treatment supports clinical cure in individual patients but also leads to emerging resistance rates in the population. We designed a comparative effectiveness study to investigate whether the use of antibiotics for uncomplicated UTI could be reduced by initial treatment with ibuprofen, reserving antibiotic treatment to patients who return due to ongoing or recurrent symptoms. Methods/design This is a randomized-controlled, double-blind, double dummy multicentre trial assessing the comparative effectiveness of immediate vs. conditional antibiotic therapy in uncomplicated UTI. Women > 18 and Discussion This study aims at investigating whether the use of antibiotics for uncomplicated UTI could be reduced by initial treatment with ibuprofen. The comparative effectiveness design was chosen to prove the effectiveness of two therapeutic strategies instead of the pure drug efficacy. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.Gov: NCT01488955

Keywords

• Urinary tract infection
• Comparative effectiveness design
• Antibiotic prescription
• General practice