Prophylactic chemotherapy with low-dosage trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole following acute urinary tract infections in children.

The cases of 10 children with acute and recurrent infection of the urinary tract are presented. Their ages were between 7 weeks and 9 years. Five of the children had been previously treated with a combination of sulfisoxazole, ampicillin, mandelamine and nitrofurantion and four of these children had "breakthrough" infections. When trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole was administered twice weekly no further infections were noted in four of these five patients. The second group of five children were started on trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole from the start of their infection and treatment was continued twice weekly for 5 to 7 months. No recurrence of infection of the urine has been detected up to the present time. It is concluded that treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole initiated at the outset of urinary tract infection and twice weekly is a valuable drug in children, provided the organism responsible for the infection is sensitive to this agent.