Uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) are among the most common infectious diseases in outpatient practice. In 1999, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) issued recommendations indicating trimethoprim / sulfamethoxazole as the first line of treatment for these infections.

Y. Taur et al. (United States), a concurrent study of medical data from women over 18 who sought outpatient care for simple urinary tract infections from 1996 to 2001 was performed. The objective of this work was to identify existing pharmacotherapy practices for these infections and to determine the degree of influence of the IDSA recommendations on them.

A total of 2,339 episodes of uncomplicated UTI were identified. Most often, infections have been treated with trimethoprim / sulfamethoxazole and ciprofloxacin. Despite IDSA recommendations, the frequency of use of trimethoprim / sulfamethoxazole did not change significantly during the study period (odds ratio (OR) 0.89; confidence interval (CI) at 95% 0.6-1.3; p = 0.53), while the frequency of use of ciprofloxacin has increased (OR 1.75; 95% CI 1.11-2.75; p less than 0.016). Similar results were obtained in a subgroup analysis taking into account the geographical region, the place of treatment (private vs medical practices), the doctor's specialty, the patient's race, the mode payment for medical services and the type of medical treatment (primary or re).

Thus, the current IDSA recommendations do not significantly affect the practice of prescribing antibacterial drugs for urinary tract infections by American doctors.