Although antibiotic treatment is effective for children with UTI, there are insufficient data to answer the question of which type of antibiotic or which duration is most effective to treat symptomatic lower UTI. This review found that 10-day antibiotic treatment is more likely to eliminate bacteria from the urine than single-dose treatments. No differences were observed for persistent bacteriuria, recurrence or re-infection between short and long-course antibiotics where the antibiotic differed between groups. This data adds to an existing Cochrane review comparing short and long-course treatment of the same antibiotic who also reported no evidence of difference between short and long-course antibiotics.
Three-day therapy with cephalexin for lower urinary tract infections in children.
In a prospective study of children with an acute infection of the lower urinary tract, the effectiveness of a 3-day course of cephalexin, 25-50 mg/kg body weight and day was compared with that of a 10-day course of nitrofurantoin, 3-4 mg/kg/day. 19 children were allotted to treatment with cephalexin and 24 were treated with nitrofurantoin. The immediate cure rates were 90% and 96%, respectively. Two relapses were noted in the cephalexin group and 1 in the nitrofurantoin group. During a mean follow-up period of 7-8 months 2 of the cephalexin treated patients and 4 patients treated with nitrofurantoin had a reinfection. No side effects were noted in either of the treatment groups. The results suggest that treatment with cephalexin for 3 days is a reasonable alternative in children with an acute lower urinary tract infection when commonly used medications for one reason or another are less well tolerated.