Shorter antibiotic regimen just as effective for febrile urinary tract infection in children

A 5-day course of oral amoxicillin-clavulanate performs just as wells as a 10-day course in the treatment of febrile urinary tract infection (fUTI) in children, a study has shown.

For the study, researchers recruited 142 children between 3 months and 5 years of age who had a noncomplicated fUTI. These children were randomly assigned to undergo treatment with amoxicillin-clavulanate 50 + 7.12 mg/kg/day, administered orally in three divided doses, for either 5 or 10 days.

Recurrence of a UTI within 30 days after the completion of therapy was the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints included the difference in prevalence of clinical recovery, adverse drug-related events, and resistance to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and/or to other antibiotics when a recurrent infection occurred.

Recurrence of a UTI within 30 days after the end of therapy occurred less frequently in the 5-day-course group than in the 10-day-course group (2.8 percent vs 14.3 percent). The difference between the two groups was –11.51 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], –20.54 to –2.47).

Meanwhile, the rate of recurrence of fUTI within 30 days after the end of therapy was similar between the 5-day-course and the 10-day-course groups (1.4 percent vs 5.7 percent), with a difference of –4.3 (95 percent CI, –10.4 to 1.75).