Evaluation of antibiotics for treatment of urinary tract infections

The evaluation of new regimens for treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) has often been unsatisfactory. A major reason has been the lack of internationally accepted guidelines for design and conduct of UTI trials. The introduction of new guidelines has largely overcome this problem. However, some problems remain, and this review especially addresses the problem of defining outcomes of treatment of UTI. New, somewhat controversial definitions of bacteriuria are well documented for various types of UTI, but have not been properly evaluated as end-points for defining bacteriological responses to treatment.