NON-ANTIBIOTIC SUBSTANCES IN THE TREATMENT AND PREVENTION OF RECURRENT URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS

Urinary tract infections (UTI) create a serious health problem worldwide, affecting people of all ages. It represents one of the most common reasons for the use of antibiotics in outpatient care, leading to a reduction in their effectiveness through ever-increasing bacterial resistance to them. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new and effective therapies. The purpose of this paper is to present alternative therapies that can help prevent and treat recurrent UTIs, such as cranberry preparations, D-mannose, robotics and topical estrogen. After analyzing the available studies, it was shown that each of these substances can have a beneficial effect on reducing recurrent UTIs, although their effectiveness varies. Substances with high therapeutic potential appear to be D-mannose and probiotics. Their action is based on supporting the natural human microflora and blocking bacterial adhesion to the epithelium of the urinary tract. A preventive strategy in the context of UTI in postmenopausal women seems to be vaginal estrogen. However, further robustly designed clinical trials need to be conducted to truly confirm that these therapies are effective and safe in terms of long-term efficacy.