Role of Vaccines for Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: A Systematic Review

Abstract Context Recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) can be a difficult condition to treat, and the role of vaccines is unclear. Objective To systematically review the role of vaccines in the treatment of rUTIs, looking at efficacy, adverse events, and discontinuation from treatment. Evidence acquisition We systematically reviewed the role of vaccines for rUTIs using the Cochrane and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodologies for all English-language articles from inception of databases to July 2018. Data were collected for different vaccine types, short- (≤6 mo) and long-term (>6 mo) efficacy, and adverse effects with risk of bias assessment of included studies. Evidence synthesis After initial identification of 1680 articles, 36 abstracts were screened, 25 full-text articles were assessed, and 17 (including 3228 patients; 1970 in the vaccine group and 1258 in the comparison group) were included. There were three studies in Uromune, nine in OM-89/UroVaxom, four in Solco-Urovac, and one in ExPEC4 V groups. Uromune, UroVaxom, and Solco-Urovac reported on the short-term follow-up, and the overall efficacy for vaccination demonstrated a significant odds ratio (OR) of 0.17 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.06–0.50). Uromune, UroVaxom, and ExPEC4 V reported on the long-term follow-up, and the overall efficacy for vaccination demonstrated a significant OR of 0.20 (95% CI 0.07–0.59). The reported side effects were mild and varied from 0% to 13% across studies, and treatment withdrawal or exclusion due to adverse events was reported in 11 patients. Conclusions Vaccines seem to have a short-term role in the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections with tolerable side effects. However, due to lack of uniformity of definitions and long-term follow-up, more work needs to be done with inclusion of other high-risk patient groups. Patient summary In this study, we look at the role of vaccines for recurrent urinary tract infections. We found that they seem to have a short-term role in the prevention of recurrent urinary tract infections and might play an increasing role in the future.