Long-Term Treatment of Persistent or Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection with Trimethoprim-Sulfamethexazole

Abstract

Patients with urinary tract infection who persistently relapsed or repeatedly became reinfected after initial and repeated treatment with short conventional courses of antibiotics were treated for protracted periods with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in diminishing dosage. Of 104 patients treated, the drug was stopped in 10 cases because of side effects. Excluding seven patients whose urine specimens did not become negative even while receiving antibacterial agents and six patients treated for symptoms while abacteriuric, long-term therapy was successful in all but nine patients. Half the patients who had suffered persistent relapse and a third of those who had been repeatedly reinfected remained free of infection when the drug was stopped after periods of treatment of more than six months.