Urinary Tract Infections With Low and High Colony Counts in Young Women: Spontaneous Remission and Single-Dose vs Multiple-Day Treatment

Abstract

I have read with interest the article by Arav-Boger et al 1 on vs multiple-day antibacterial treatment of acute urinary tract infections (UTIs) in women. Based on our recent comparative study on the effect of a of ofloxacin (400 mg), norfloxacin (800 mg), or ciprofloxacin (500 mg) in 174 acute UTIs in premenopausal and postmenopausal women, 2 we agree with the authors' statements that the efficacy of treatment is similar in patients with low and high urinary bacterial counts and that multiple-day treatment with norfloxacin is probably more effective than treatment in UTI in women. We disagree, however, with the authors' generalization that single-dose treatment of uncomplicated UTI in women is less effective than multiple-day treatment, a statement that should be reserved for norfloxacin. Our study clearly demonstrated that treatment with ofloxacin or ciprofloxacin cured 97% of the uncomplicated UTIs in women and, thus, proved