Novel Probiotic Treatment for Prevention of Recurrent UTIs in Children
Novel Probiotic Treatment for Prevention of Recurrent UTIs in Children
Background:

 Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common and costly cause of doctor visits for children.
 Frequent UTIs trigger kidney damage that leads to serious diseases like high blood pressure,
 pregnancy complications, and kidney failure. Treating UTIs with preventative antibiotics has
 not shown improvement of the risk of these diseases, and contributes to the growing public
 health issue of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Bacteria that cause UTIs originate from the
 bowel. In an effort to reduce the number of UTIs, investigators want to exchange the bacteria
 living in our bowels for a more harmless variety.

 Hypothesis and specific aims:

 Investigators hypothesize a probiotic comprised of a probiotic bacteria will change the bowel
 bacteria, thereby reducing the numbers of infection-causing bacteria, thus reducing frequency
 of UTIs in healthy patients with recurrent UTIs and those patients with urinary tract
 problems that require use of catheters to empty their bladders.

 Aim 1: Investigators plan to challenge infection-causing bacteria like Pseudomonas species,
 Enterococcus species, and Klebsiella species to live in the same environment with the
 probiotic bacteria to see how the numbers of each bacteria change.

 Aim 2: Investigators will culture bacteria that live on urinary catheters and then challenge
 them to live in the same environment as the probiotic bacteria.

 Potential Impact:

 This novel treatment prevents UTIs by exchanging a patient's bowel bacteria for a harmless
 bacteria and reduces the use of antibiotics overall in the community.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  Patients with urinary catheters placed that will be getting them removed

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Patient's currently getting treated for UTI