Nitrofurantoin Administration for the Prevention of Short-Term Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection After Pelvic Surgery

The specific aim of this randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy of administration of nitrofurantoin prophylaxis after catheter discontinuation for the prevention of catheter-associated urinary tract infections in patients with postoperative short-term catheterization following pelvic reconstructive surgery and/or urinary incontinence surgery. Patients that undergo pelvic organ prolapse and/or urinary incontinence surgery and fail their post-operative voiding trial will be included in the study. Upon successfully passing and in-office voiding trial at the time of catheter removal, they will be randomized to either nitrofurantoin 100mg twice daily or an identical appearing placebo capsule twice daily for 5 days following catheter removal. The primary outcome will be the treatment of clinically suspected and/or culture-proven UTI within 30 days of surgery. Secondary outcomes include adverse events associated with nitrofurantoin use and medication compliance. Primary and secondary outcomes will be evaluated with Student t test and chi squared or Fisher exact test as appropriate. Assuming a decrease in symptomatic UTIs attributable to nitrofurantoin prophylaxis from 32% to 14%, with 80% power, and a two-sided alpha of 0.05, we should recruit a total of 164 patients.