Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Urinary Tract Infections in Pediatrics and Adults
Authors: Zachary Nelson, Abdullah Tarık Aslan, Nathan P. Beahm, Michelle Blyth, Matthew Cappiello, Danielle Casaus, Fernando Dominguez, Susan Egbert, Alexandra Hanretty, Tina Khadem, Katie Olney, Ahmed Abdul-Azim, Gloria Aggrey, Daniel T. Anderson, Mariana Barosa, Michael Bosco, Elias B. Chahine, Souradeep Chowdhury, Alyssa Christensen, Daniela de Lima Corvino, Margaret Fitzpatrick, Molly Fleece, Brent Footer, Emily Fox, Bassam Ghanem, Fergus Hamilton, Justin Hayes, Boris Jegorovic, Philipp Jent, Rodolfo Norberto Jimenez-Juarez, Annie Joseph, Minji Kang, Geena Kludjian, Sarah Kurz, Rachael A. Lee, Todd C. Lee, Timothy Li, Alberto Enrico Maraolo, Mira Maximos, Emily G. McDonald, Dhara Mehta, William Justin Moore, Cynthia T. Nguyen, Cihan Papan, Akshatha Ravindra, Brad Spellberg, Robert Taylor, Alexis Thumann, Steven Y. C. Tong, Michael Veve, James Wilson, Arsheena Yassin, Veronica Zafonte, Alfredo J. Mena Lora
Journal: JAMA Network Open (2024)

Importance Traditional approaches to practice guidelines frequently result in dissociation between strength of recommendation and quality of evidence. Objective To create a clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of urinary tract infections that addresses the gap between the evidence and recommendation strength. Evidence Review This consensus statement and systematic review applied an approach previously established by the WikiGuidelines Group to construct collaborative clinical guidelines. In May 2023, new and existing members were solicited for questions on urinary tract infection prevention, diagnosis, and management. For each topic, literature searches were conducted up until early 2024 in any language. Evidence was reported according to the WikiGuidelines charter: clear recommendations were established only when reproducible, prospective, controlled studies provided hypothesis-confirming evidence. In the absence of such data, clinical reviews were developed discussing the available literature and associated risks and benefits of various approaches. Findings A total of 54 members representing 12 countries reviewed 914 articles and submitted information relevant to 5 sections: prophylaxis and prevention (7 questions), diagnosis and diagnostic stewardship (7 questions), empirical treatment (3 questions), definitive treatment and antimicrobial stewardship (10 questions), and special populations and genitourinary syndromes (10 questions). Of 37 unique questions, a clear recommendation could be provided for 6 questions. In 3 of the remaining questions, a clear recommendation could only be provided for certain aspects of the question. Clinical reviews were generated for the remaining questions and aspects of questions not meeting criteria for a clear recommendation. Conclusions and Relevance In this consensus statement that applied the WikiGuidelines method for clinical guideline development, the majority of topics relating to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of urinary tract infections lack high-quality prospective data and clear recommendations could not be made. Randomized clinical trials are underway to address some of these gaps; however further research is of utmost importance to inform true evidence-based, rather than eminence-based practice.