Birmingham Children’s Hospital consultant leads national study to benefit patients with urine infection
A Birmingham Children’s Hospital consultant is leading the way on a national study that hopes to help young patients with urine infections.
Urine infections (UTIs) are very common in children and symptoms result in a large number of attendances to our Emergency Department.
UTIs are typically treated with an antibiotic called cefalexin. While adults often recover with a three day course of antibiotics, it is uncertain how many days of antibiotic are needed to help children. The lack of evidence means there is a lot of variation across the country in how long children are treated for.
Dr Stuart Hartshorn, Consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at our Children's Hospital and Honorary Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham is leading the CURLY UTI study, which aims understand the optimum number of days to administer cefalexin.
Dr Hartshorn said: “I am really pleased to be leading this national study which will provide opportunities for children, young people, and their families to contribute to valuable research.
“The CURLY study aims to identify the optimal number of days of cefalexin treatment, so that there is a set standard across the country. We can avoid unnecessary and excessive treatment, which is often associated with side effects and inconvenience to families, as well as increasing the risk of antibiotic resistance.”
The study is being held in hospital emergency departments across the country from Middlesbrough in the North East all the way to Brighton on the South Coast, recruiting patients aged from three months to 11 years old who are diagnosed with a UTI.
Patients in the study have a random chance of receiving one of five lengths of cefalexin treatment (between three days and 10 days). Data is then collected to allow the study team to decide on the optimum number of antibiotic treatment days.
The study started in Spring 2024. You can find more information on the study’s website: https://www.curly.digitrial.com/