Newcastle University

What this study aims to do:

• The AnTIC trial is about finding out whether taking a once daily dose of antibiotic is worthwhile to prevent repeated urinary infections in people using intermittent catheterisation to empty their bladder.

•  Repeated urinary infections are a common problem for people who do intermittent catheterisation and require treatment with antibiotics. Repeated courses of antibiotics to treat these urinary infections can be harmful as the infecting bugs can become resistant and it is also upsets the balance of ‘healthy’ bugs in the intestine.

•  One possible way to reduce these infections is to take a single daily small dose of antibiotic for a prolonged period to suppress the tendency for bugs to invade the bladder (this is called ‘prophylaxis’).  The trouble is we don’t know if it works for people who carry out intermittent catheterisation.  To find out if it does work we have designed the AnTIC trial comparing the benefits of once daily antibiotic for a year, compared to the more usual approach of taking a full dose of antibiotics for active infection.

• To do the study we need to enroll about 400 people across the UK who do intermittent bladder catheterisation and who suffer from repeated urinary infections.