The February issue of The Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy published the results of a randomized controlled trial in Scotland comparing the effects of cranberry extract and low doses of trimethoprim in preventing recurrent infections urinary tract (UTI) in women. advanced age.

The study involved 137 women who had received at least 2 courses of antibiotics for UTI in the past 12 months. Patients were randomized to receive 500 mg cranberry extract or 100 mg trimethoprim for 6 months.

In the study, 39 of 137 patients (28%) were prescribed antibiotics for urinary tract infections, of which 25 were patients in the cranberry extract group and 14 women in the trimethoprim group (relative risk ratio 1.616, confidence interval 95% 0.93-2.79, p = 0.084). The time to the onset of the first UTI recurrence was not statistically significant between the groups (p = 0.1). The mean time to recurrence of UTI in the group using cranberry extract was 84.5 days and in the trimethoprim group - 91 days (p = 0.479). Seventeen patients (12%) dropped out of the study - 6 people (9%) in the group using cranberry extract and 11 women (16%) in the group using trimethoprim (p = 0.205). The relative risk of dropping out of the group in which the cranberry extract was used was 0.54 (95% CI 0.19-1.37).

Thus, this study demonstrated that the use of trimethoprim has very limited benefits compared to the use of cranberry extract for recurrent urinary tract infections in older women. In addition, the use of trimethoprim is characterized by a higher incidence of adverse drug reactions. Study results recommend that older women with recurrent UTIs talk to their treating physicians about the possibility of using a cheap natural product, cranberry extract, which does not cause RLN, often resulting the use of antibiotics (superinfection, candidiasis, combined with antibiotics) for the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections. diarrhea) and does not contribute to the growth and spread of antibiotic resistance in uropathogens.