INTRODUCTION

Up to 11.3% of girls and 3.6% of boys will have had a urinary tract infection (UTI) by the age of 16 years, and recurrence of infection is common. Vesicoureteric reflux is identified in up to 40% of children being investigated for a first UTI, and is a risk factor for, but weak predictor of, renal parenchymal defects.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical questions: What are the effects of treatment of acute urinary tract infection in children? What are the effects of interventions to prevent recurrence? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to July 2009 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found 25 systematic reviews, RCTs, or observational studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: antibiotics (short initial intravenous antibiotics, long initial intravenous antibiotics, initial oral antibiotics, single-dose or single-day courses of oral antibiotics, short courses of oral antibiotics, long courses of oral antibiotics, immediate empirical antibiotics, delayed antibiotics, prolonged delay of antibiotics, prophylactic antibiotics); immunotherapy; surgical correction of minor functional abnormalities; and surgical correction of moderate to severe vesicoureteric reflux.