Short IV antibiotic course improves urinary tract infections in young infants: AAP

Australia: A new study showed that after eliminating meningitis, shorter IV antibiotic treatments of 7 days and 3 days, respectively, with an early changeover to oral antibiotics, should be explored in babies aged 90 days with bacteremic and nonbacteremic urinary tract infections (UTI). This study was conducted by Samar Hikmat and the team. The findings of this work were published in the American Academy of Pediatrics on January 24, 2022.

UTIs are prevalent in newborns, but there is no consensus on the best length of intravenous (IV) therapy. Therefore, the objective of this study was to see if shorter IV antibiotic treatments (7 days) are effective in treating UTIs in newborns aged 90 days.

For this study data sources included PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Medline, and Embase (as of February 2021). Included studies presented original data for babies aged 90 days with UTIs, investigated short IV antibiotic durations (seven days), and detailed at least one treatment result. The guideline for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses was followed. Two investigators reviewed the studies, and bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Revised Cochrane Risk-of-Bias Tool.