Medicine and infectious disease textbooks have traditionally advised physicians to obtain urine cultures routinely before the initiation of therapy for presumed urinary tract infection. In practice, however, many physicians treat patients empirically, without doing a culture, and a recent cost-effectiveness analysis has supported this approach, at least in selected patients. What, then, are trie pros and cons of diagnostic urine cultures, and in which situations does current evidence favor their use?
Cost-effectiveness analysis of oral versus intravenous drip infusion of levofloxacin in the treatment of acute lower respiratory tract infection in Chinese elderly patients
