Urinary Tract Infection in Children : An Update

UTI is an important cause of acute illness, it may be a marker of underlying urinary tract abnormality. Bacteria causes the large majority of UTI in children-Escherichia coli is the most common (90%) bacterial cause . Urine culture & sensitivity is the gold standard for the diagnosis and mandatory for confirmation of UTI. On culture, a colony count of more than 105/ml organisms of a single species is considered confirmatory of UTI. But there is a strong recommendation that , presence of both pyuria and at least 50,000 Colony Forming Unit (CFU) / ml of a single uropathogen in an appropriately collected specimen makes the diagnosis. There is a recommended imaging schedule in childhood UTI to detect anatomical abnormality. Management depends on type of infection. There is no role of prophylactic antibiotics to prevent febrile recurrent UTI without VUR.