Controlled clinical trial of a rifampicin- trimethoprim combination (Rifaprim) and cotrimoxazole in patients with chronic urinary tract infections.

A controlled clinical trial of Rifaprim (rifampicin 600 mg plus trimethoprim 160 mg, in a single daily dose at 10 p.m.) and cotrimoxazole (two tablets b.i.d.) was carried out in two groups of twenty-one patients, each with chronic or recurrent urinary tract infections. Both treatments lasted 10 days. At the first follow-up, 3-11 days after the end of treatment, bacteriological failure was observed in two Rifaprim patients and in four contrimoxazole patients. Clinical improvement with sterile urine or markedly reduced bacterial count was observed in nineteen. Rifaprim patients and in fifteen cases of the other group. Mild allergic phenomena were observed in three Rifaprim patients, but they did not require discontinuation of treatment; anorexia was complained of by a cotrimoxazole patient. Rifaprim appears a valuable alternative in the treatment of chronic urinary tract infection, mainly because it reduces or abolishes the risk of emergence of resistance.