What Antibiotics Are Given For Urinary Tract Infections

When To Seek Medical Advice

What are some common antibiotics used to treat UTIs?

You are at greater risk of developing complications from a UTI and should seek medical advice promptly if you:

have existing kidney disease, diabetes, or another chronic condition
are pregnant
are over the age of 65
or have one or more of the following symptoms – high temperature , shivering, nausea and/or vomiting, diarrhoea or worsening pain in your abdomen, pelvis or back.

Urine Drug Concentration & Clinical Efficacy

Antimicrobial drugs must achieve an adequate urine concentration, which must be maintained for a sufficient time for a drug to be effective in treating UTI.16 It has been suggested that clinical efficacy is observed when the urine drug concentration is maintained at a concentration 4-fold higher than the isolates MIC throughout the time between doses.9

Experimental studies in rats have shown that the time for which the plasma drug concentration exceeds the isolates MIC correlates to the magnitude of bacterial colony count reduction the longer the time for which the drug concentration remained above the MIC, the lower the urine colony counts.12 Successful eradication of bacteria within the renal parenchyma or urinary bladder wall is correlated to the plasma, not urine, drug concentration.

When prescribing time-dependent antibiotics, shortening the interval between drug administration is the most effective method to allow the tissue/urine drug concentration to exceed the MIC for the majority of the dosing interval.

Drug elimination follows first-order kinetics, where 50% of the drug is lost in 1 half-life.
In contrast, doubling the dose would only add 1 half-life to the dosing interval.
To add 2 half-lives to the dosing interval, the initial dose would have to be increased 4-fold. The peak serum drug concentration achieved by this approach may exceed the window of safety, producing adverse drug effects.

Symptoms Of Uti In Women

Symptoms of UTI are similar in most adults. The most common symptom of a simple UTI is called dysuria, which is pain or discomfort when you pee. You might have pain, heaviness, or a cramping feeling in your lower abdomen or pelvic area.

UTI can also cause frequency and urgency. Frequency is the need to pee more often than normal. Urgency is the feeling that you need to go right now. Occasionally, UTIs can make urine cloudy, bloody, or smell bad.

If you develop other signs and symptoms in addition to the ones above, this could mean your infection has become more serious. You should seek treatment immediately. These serious symptoms include:

Fever

Implications For Research And Practice

Based on the data we analysed, a pragmatic approach is required when considering prescribing long-term antibiotics in older patients with recurrent UTI. Although long-term antibiotics may reduce the risk of UTI recurrence in women, this benefit diminishes on cessation of treatment. Little is known about optimal prophylaxis period, long-term effects on health, risk of antibiotic resistant infections, effect in older men, effect in frail care home residents or impact on important patient-centred outcomes. These unknowns must be balanced against benefits and patient preferences.

Future research efforts on recurrent UTI should focus on improving the design and reporting of trials and developing a core set of outcomes to allow better synthesis of trial data. Antibiotic prophylaxis should be compared with non-antibiotic prophylaxis with some evidence of efficacy rather than those with little or poor evidence of efficacy. Researchers should address unanswered questions regarding long-term effects, duration of use, adverse effects and antibiotic resistance.

Data Synthesis And Analysis

Preferred antibiotics for treatment of urinary tract ...

Outcomes measured in only one trial were reported narratively. Outcomes measured in more than one trial were synthesised quantitatively. We estimated between trial heterogeneity using the I2 statistic and used random effects meta-analyses to estimate pooled risk ratios and 95% CIs. We undertook sensitivity analyses to examine treatment effects according to study quality and assessed the impact of including data from a potentially eligible trial where the study author did not reply to our request for data on older participants.

Can I Become Immune To The Antibiotics Used To Treat A Uti

Your body can actually get used to the antibiotics typically used to treat a urinary tract infection . This happens in people who have very frequent infections. With each UTI and use of antibiotics to treat it, the infection adapts and becomes harder to fight. This is called an antibiotic-resistant infection. Because of this, your healthcare provider may suggest alternative treatments if you have frequent UTIs. These could include:

Waiting: Your provider may suggest that you watch your symptoms and wait. During this time, you may be encouraged to drink plenty of fluids in an effort to flush out your system.
Intravenous treatment: In some very complicated cases, where the UTI is resistant to antibiotics or the infection has moved to your kidneys, you may need to be treated in the hospital. The medicine will be given to you directly in your vein . Once youre home, you will be prescribed antibiotics for a period of time to fully get rid of the infection.

What Are Utis And Who Should Care

UTIs are infections of the urinary tract. The urinary tract is the system that creates, collects, and gets rid of urine from your body. When bacteria enter the urinary system and find a place to grow, this is called a UTI.

Your urinary tract begins with your kidneys, which create urine. A pair of tubes called ureters carry urine from your kidneys down into your bladder. Urine is held in your bladder until you are ready to empty it. When you go to the bathroom, urine comes out through your urethra, which is the tube that connects your bladder to the outside.

Infections of the kidney, called pyelonephritis, can be quite serious. Bladder infections, called cystitis, are the most common type of UTI. Usually, when people talk about a UTI, they are talking about a bladder infection.

What You Need To Know About Resistant Urinary Tract Infections

U.T.I.s are one of the worlds most common infections, but many of the drugs used to treat them have become less effective as resistance to antibiotics grows.

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By Matt Richtel

Urinary tract infections, or U.T.I.s, are one of the worlds most common infections. Increasingly, they also are resistant to major drug treatments. Heres what you should know.

Whats The Difference Between A Urinary Tract Infection And Bladder Infection

Ask Dr. Nandi: Antibiotic-resistant urinary tract infections are on the rise

A urinary tract infection is a more general type of infection. There are many parts of your urinary tract. A UTI is a term for an infection that takes place throughout the urinary tract. A bladder infection, also called cystitis, is a specific infection. In this infection, bacteria makes its way into the bladder and causes inflammation.

Not all urinary tract infections become bladder infections. Preventing the spread of the infection is one of the most important reasons to treat a UTI quickly when you have symptoms. The infection can spread not only to the bladder, but also into your kidneys, which is a more complicated type of infection than a UTI.

Also Check: Azo Urinary Tract Defense Antibacterial Protection

Amoxicillin/potassium Clavulanate Cefdinir Or Cephalexin

How it Works: is another combination drug that belongs to the penicillin class of antibiotics. and belong to a different class of antibiotics thats closely related to penicillins.

All three antibiotics kill bacteria by destroying one of its most important components: the cell wall, which normally keeps bacteria structurally intact.

Common doses:

Amoxicillin/clavulanate: 500 twice a day for 5 to 7 days
Cefdinir: 300 mg twice a day for 5 to 7 days
Cephalexin: 250 mg to 500 mg every 6 hours for 7 days

Notable side effects: Diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and rash are common side effects of these antibiotics. In rare cases, all three have the potential to cause the dangerous skin reactions, SJS and TEN.

If you have a penicillin allergy, your healthcare provider wont prescribe amoxicillin/clavulanate. They may or may not prescribe cefdinir or cephalexin since there is a small chance that a person with a penicillin allergy may also be allergic to these two.

Urinary Tract Infection Antibiotics

Antibiotics are the treatment of choice for a urinary tract infection.

Your veterinarian will perform a sensitivity test to see how the bacteria in the urine react to certain drugs, then check if your dog is allergic to any drugs and then prescribe the proper antibiotics.

If the right antibiotic is prescribed, the number of bacteria in the dog’s urine will decrease.

However, your veterinarian may prescribe the antibiotic without performing the urine culture test.

A urinary tract infection is often treated with antimicrobials.

These are usually taken for 2 to 3 weeks, depending on how much the infection has spread.

The most common antibiotics and antimicrobials are:

cephalexin

Also Check: Mckesson Disposable Urinary Leg Bag

Treating A Uti From Other Causes

In some patients, recurrent infections occur without a clearly identifiable cause and then patients may be put on prophylactic antibiotics which are a low, daily dose, to help prevent infection. This is rare as our Guidance® UTI Test more accurately identifies not only the more common bacteria, but also the uncommon bacteria that other available tests would not detect – including fungi and viruses.

Other Ways To Prevent Recurring Utis

If you have more than 3 UTIs in 1 year, or 2 UTIs in 6 months, there are other things that may help prevent UTIs.

There is some evidence that women under 65 years old who keep getting UTIs may find it helpful to take:

a supplement called D-mannose this is not recommended for pregnant women
cranberry products, such as juice or tablets

Speak to your doctor before taking any of these during pregnancy.

Be aware that D-mannose and cranberry products can contain a lot of sugar.

Page last reviewed: 18 November 2020 Next review due: 18 November 2023

Which Antibiotic Will Work Best

Your doctor will take a urine sample to confirm that you have a UTI. Then the lab will grow the germs in a dish for a couple of days to find out which type of bacteria you have. This is called a culture. Itâll tell your doctor what type of germs caused your infection. Theyâll likely prescribe one of the following antibiotics to treat it before the culture comes back:

Trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole

Which medication and dose you get depends on whether your infection is complicated or uncomplicated.

âUncomplicatedâ means your urinary tract is normal. âComplicatedâ means you have a disease or problem with your urinary tract. You could have a narrowing of your ureters, which are the tubes that carry urine from your kidneys to your bladder, a narrowing in the urethra which transports urine from the bladder out of the body, or, you might have a blockage like a kidney stone or an enlarged prostate . It’s also possible you have a urinary fistula or a bladder diverticulum.

To treat a complicated infection, your doctor might prescribe a higher dose of antibiotics. If your UTI is severe or the infection is in your kidneys, you might need to be treated in a hospital or doctor’s office with high-dose antibiotics you get through an IV.

Your doctor will also consider these factors when choosing an antibiotic:

Are you over age 65?
Are you allergic to any antibiotics?
Have you had any side effects from antibiotics in the past?

What Can I Do To Avoid Getting A Uti In The First Place

Women are more susceptible to U.T.I.s, as they are commonly known, owing to the way these germs infect: They often travel through fecal residue from the rectum to the urethra this can happen through sex or poor bathroom hygiene. Even taking great care does not make them entirely avoidable.

Here are some steps that can help prevent urinary tract infections: Drink plenty of fluids, which helps flush out the bladder. Empty your bladder after sexual intercourse. Practice good bathroom hygiene, which, simply put, means wiping from front to back.

During the reproductive years, women are as much as 50 times more likely than men to get a U.T.I. However, those numbers even out significantly in an aging population because men wind up getting surgical procedures, or have bowel control issues, that might lead to the same spread of germs from gut and rectum to the urinary tract.

What If I Have Frequent Recurring Utis

Within a year of havig a UTI infection, roughy one-quarter to one-half of women will have another UTI. For these women antibiotic prophylaxis may be recommended by her health care provider. With a recurrent course of UTIs, a urine culture or imaging tests may be required for further analysis.

For recurrent UTIs, there are several antibiotic options for prevention:

A shorter course of antibiotics at the first sign of UTI symptoms a prescription may be given to you to keep at home.
A longer course of low-dose antibiotic therapy.
Take a single dose of an antibiotic after sexual intercourse.

The choice of antibiotic is based on previous UTIs, effectiveness, and patient-specific factors such as allergies and cost. Antibiotics commonly used for recurrent UTIs can include sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, nitrofurantoin, cefaclor, or cephalexin.

In postmenopausal women with vaginal dryness that may be leading to recurrent UTIs, vaginal estrogen may be an effective treatment. Treatment options your doctor might recommend include: Estring, Vagifem , or vaginal estrogen creams .

Consider Switching Birth Control

Treatment of Urinary Tract Infections with Antibiotics

Some older research suggests that certain contraceptives may contribute to the cause of UTIs in some women.

If you use diaphragms, spermicides, or nonlubricated condoms and get frequent UTIs, it may be worth talking to your doctor to find other methods of birth control.

Its not uncommon for UTIs to go away on their own with at-home care and without the use of antibiotics.

Some research estimates that 25 to 42 percent of UTIs can go away on their own. This is usually only common in women with no other health issues.

However, there are some serious risks that can come from leaving a UTI untreated, including pyelonephritis and .

UTIs are painful, but with treatment, you can alleviate an infection and prevent recurrent infections. Talk with your doctor if you have symptoms of a UTI. With proper treatment, you should begin to feel better in a few days.

Take your antibiotics as instructed even after your symptoms improve to prevent complications or a secondary infection.

If the UTI doesnt resolve after antibiotic treatment or you end up with multiple episodes of a UTI, your doctor will likely do further testing.

This could be in the form of:

cystoscopy
urodynamic testing

You may be referred to a urologist, depending on the severity of your UTI or if you have chronic infections.

Certain strains of bacteria can cause UTIs. They can range from mild to severe. The degree of severity depends on multiple factors, including:

Don’t Miss: What Can I Take To Cure A Urinary Tract Infection

Symptoms Of Urinary Tract Infections

During the first stage, the urinary tract infection might not show any symptoms. It is only when the bacteria have invaded the urinary tract that symptoms appear. There are two types of urinary tract infections, and the symptoms are different.

An upper urinary tract infection comes with:

Lack of appetite
Drinking more water than usual

A lower urinary tract infection will present symptoms such as:

Polydipsia
The dog is in pain when urinating
The urine might contain traces of blood
The dog urinates significantly more than usual
The dog tries to urinate, but cannot

How Long Should I Take Antibiotics

Your doctor will let you know. Typically, for an uncomplicated infection, you’ll take antibiotics for 2 to 3 days. Some people will need to take these medicines for up to 7 to 10 days.

For a complicated infection, you might need to take antibiotics for 14 days or more.

If you still have symptoms after completing antibiotics, a follow-up urine test can show whether the germs are gone. If you still have an infection, you’ll need to take antibiotics for a longer period of time.

If you get UTIs often, you may need a prolonged course of antibiotics. And if sex causes your UTIs, you’ll take a dose of the medicine right before you have sex. You can also take antibiotics whenever you get a new UTI if youâre having symptoms and a positive urine culture.

Read Also: How To Manage Urinary Incontinence

Treatment Strategies For Recurrent Utis

Recurrent urinary tract infections, defined as three or more UTIs within 12 months, or two or more occurrences within six months, is very common among women these but arent treated exactly the same as standalone UTIs. One of the reasons: Continued intermittent courses of antibiotics are associated with allergic reactions, organ toxicities, future infection with resistant organisms, and more.

Because of this, its strongly recommended that you receive both a urinalysis and urine culture from your healthcare provider prior to initiating treatment. Once the results are in, the American Urological Association suggests that healthcare professionals do the following:

Use first-line treatments. Nitrofurantoin, TMP-SMX, and fosfomycin are the initial go-tos. However, specific drug recommendations should be dependent on the local antibiogram. An antibiogram is a periodic summary of antimicrobial susceptibilities that helps track drug resistance trends.
Repeat testing. If UTI symptoms persist after antimicrobial therapy, clinicians should repeat the urinalysis, urine culture, and antibiotic susceptibility testing to help guide further management.
Try vaginal estrogen. For peri- and post-menopausal women with recurrent UTIs, vaginal estrogen therapy is recommended to reduce risk of future UTIs.