Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Articles addressing the use of antimicrobial prophylaxis prior to, during and after SWL were studied. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical series were included. Articles were excluded if raw data were not provided or subgroup analysis was not complete.
Specific interventions included in the review
Prophylactic antimicrobial therapy with the following drugs: oral quinolone, sulphamethoxazole and trimethoprim, and intravenous amoxycillin, clavulanate, azlocillin and cephalosporin. Combinations of these drugs were also included.
Participants included in the review
Patients undergoing SWL were studied. Of the patients in the individual trials, 50-100% were treated for renal calculi and the remainder for uretereral calculi. The most commonly-used anaesthetics were epidural and general.
Outcomes assessed in the review
The main outcome was the diagnosis of urinary tract infection (UTI) post-lithotripsy. The definition of a positive urine culture varied from 1E4 to 1E5 cfu/mL.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors do not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many of the authors performed the selection.