Context

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common in children and can cause considerable morbidity; furthermore, UTIs recur in 10–20% of patients.1–3 Some literature claims there are serious adverse long-term consequences of UTIs, such as hypertension and end-stage kidney disease, but evidence is sparse and lacks denominators.4 ,5 Numerous trials of low-dose antibiotics for recurrent UTIs have been published and six systematic reviews have synthesised these data. Early trials were small and poorly designed and focussed on select groups of children, making them relatively uninformative for clinical guidance. The power and statistical precision of better-designed later trials was limited by small study size. In 2009 the largest trial then published—placebo-controlled and assessing a broad …