Answer

Hello!

If she has a catheter then she is probably on the long term antibiotic as a preventive strategy. Eventually some resistant organism will arise. In this situation is would be expected that an increased dose of the same antibiotic will do nothing.

She needs to see the doctor. She needs a different class of antibiotic than the one she has been on. The urine needs to be cultured to make sure that the new antibiotic is effective against the cause of this infection.

A classic example would be that a patient were put on Macrobid or septra one tablet a day to reduce the frequency of infections. With a patient with an indwelling catheter an infection is less likely or frequent but there is no absolute protection. The first thing that you know about the infection is that it will be resistant to the preventive antibiotic. Therefore she would need a different antibiotic such as Cipro. Her cultures will show the presence of infection within 24 hours but antibiotic sensitivities will take 48 hours. It might show that the infection is sensitive to Cipro but might be resistant to this as well. In this case her antibiotic might be changed at 48 hours to match what would appear to be the best choice based on the culture results.

I hope this information helps. Further questions are welcome if you have any.

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Expert:	Anthony Bray MD
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:
Answered:	9/11/2009

Doctor

14 years as clinician in the field of Family Practice