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CHANGING CONCEPTS IN THE TREATMENT OF URINARY INFECTIONS
Author(s) -
Lampe William T.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1968.tb02765.x
Subject(s) - medicine , urinary system , nitrofurantoin , bacteriuria , urine , urinalysis , surgery , urology , antibiotics , ciprofloxacin , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
A bstract The present treatment of urinary‐tract infections is unsatisfactory because of the high rate of relapse. Attempts to prevent relapses should include careful study of the urinary tract (with as little instrumentation as possible) to determine the presence or absence of urinary obstruction—a prime cause of infection. The urine should be examined by cultural techniques for detecting significant bacteriuria. This should be repeated at the end of two weeks of therapy and at one month, three months, six months and a year thereafter. The most important clinical aspect of treatment is long‐term follow‐up, checked by means of urine cultures. There is good evidence that long‐term treatment for one or two years with sulfamethoxazole or nitrofurantoin in combination with methenamine mandelate will reduce the recurrence rate of urinary‐tract infections; drug toxicity is low. The recommended short‐term (ten to fourteen days) course of treatment for initial infections is inadequate for the recurrent type. Recurrent urinary‐tract infections require long‐term treament in association with careful urine‐culture examinations at periodic intervals for one to two years.