Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Christopher C Butler, Kathryn O’Brien, Timothy Pickles, Kerenza Hood, Mandy Wootton, Robin Howe,
Cherry-Ann Waldron, Emma Thomas-Jones, William Hollingworth, Paul Little, Judith Van Der Voort,
Jan Dudley, Kate Rumsby, Harriet Downing, Kim Harman and Alastair D Hay,
on behalf of the DUTY study team
No — data censored as
recovery did not occur
Overall, child recovery also occurred
0.8 sooner in those prescribed an appropriate
within 14 days
Yes — data censored antibiotic at the initial consultation in
as recovery did not comparison with to those who were not
symptoms at this time
0.6
occur within 14 days prescribed appropriate antibiotics, or
were not prescribed anything, at the initial
consultation, although the difference here
was not shown to be statistically significant
0.4 (P = 0.568; Table 2, Figure 3).
DISCUSSION
Summary
0.2 This study found that fewer than one-third
of children presenting with acute illness in
primary care and meeting microbiological
0.0
criteria for UTI were clinically suspected
as having a UTI. Children with clinically-
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 Days suspected UTI are more likely to receive an
antibiotic to which the pathogen is sensitive
compared with those treated serendipitously,
Figure 2. Days from initial consultation until prescribed in 57 children (44.9% of the 127 and children with UTI who are prescribed an
symptoms improved, by prescription/ for which there were antibiotic data). Among appropriate antibiotic at initial presentation
non-prescription of antibiotics. all the samples tested, organism sensitivity improve more quickly than those who are
to amoxicillin was 29.4% (resistance not. More than half of the children with a
70.6%, data not shown). Trimethoprim was UTI on laboratory culture did not receive a
prescribed to 49 children and had an overall prescription for an antibiotic when they first
sensitivity of 83.7% (resistance 16.3%, data consulted for an acute illness.
not shown). The most commonly prescribed antibiotic
The associated outcomes show that was amoxicillin, to which there were high
the symptoms of children who had a levels of resistance. An appropriate antibiotic
microbiological diagnosis of UTI and who was more likely to be prescribed when UTI
Figure 3. Days from initial consultation until full were prescribed appropriate antibiotics was clinically suspected compared with an
recovery, by prescription/non-prescription of at the initial consultation, improved antibiotic prescribed serendipitously.
antibiotics. significantly sooner than those who were Serendipitous treatment of UTI in young
children is relatively common, and the
infecting organism is often resistant to such
Appropriate antibiotic? serendipitous treatment. Children with UTI,
1.0
No who were prescribed appropriate antibiotics
Yes at the initial consultation experienced
Cumulative proportion of children without returning to