In the last years Urinary tract infections (UTI) and pyelonephritis have been the most common reason for readmission to our hospital after birth. UTI is know to be one of the leading causes of post partum fever affecting about 3%-8% of all postpartum women.

We hypothesized that collecting urine cultures pre and postnatally may help identify women at risk for developing UTI, while treating women with positive cultures, could decrease the rehospitalization rate due to post-partum fever. Collecting data during delivery may help identify women at risk for this complication.

Condition	Intervention
Urinary Tract Infection Postpartum Period	Procedure: urine culture  Drug: antibiotics according to culture

Further Study Details: 

Primary Outcomes: Rate of rehospitalization for postpartum fever; Incidence of UTI in the early puerperium
Expected Total Enrollment:  1000

The study is planned as a randomized controlled study with 500 women in each arm. The study group will have pre and post labor urine cultures taken, and the risk factors during delivery will be documented, while the control group will have no cultures taken, as the common practice prior to the study.

Women with positive cultures will be contacted by telephone, and antibiotic treatment recommended according to bacteria sensitivity. All women will be contacted by telephone 1 month post partum and data regarding urinary tract symptoms and need for hospitalization, will be collected. The rehospitalization rate will be documented and compared between the two groups.

Our assumption is that routine urine culture to women in the peripartum period may reduce the UTI rate and hospitalization after delivery.

Genders Eligible for Study:  Female

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria: parturients planned for vaginal delivery

Exclusion Criteria: patrturients receiving antibiotic treatment during delivery or in the week before

Please refer to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov identifier  NCT00121797

Arik Tzukert, DMD      00 972 2 6776095    arik@hadassah.org.il
Hadas Lemberg, PhD      00 972 2 6777572    lhadas@hadassah.org.il

Israel
      Obs&Gyn Hadassah Ein-Kerem Medical center, Jerusalem,  Israel; Recruiting
      Clinical microbiology, Hadassah Ein-Kerem Medical centre, Jerusalem,  Israel; Recruiting

Study chairs or principal investigators

Tamar Elram, MD,  Principal Investigator,  Hadassah Medical Organization   

Study ID Numbers:  26-5.9.03; Women''''s health grant 8060101
Record last reviewed:  September 2003
Last Updated:  July 25, 2005
Record first received:  July 21, 2005
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:  NCT00121797
Health Authority: Israel: Israeli Health Ministry Pharmaceutical Administration
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on 2005-07-26