Table 4.
Pooled results and certainty assessment of randomized clinical trials and observational studies involving children with high-grade VUR (fourth clinical question).
| Certainty Assessment | No. of Patients | Effect | Certainty | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of Studies | Study Design | Risk of Bias | Inconsistency | Indirectness | Imprecision | Other Considerations | Antibiotic Prophylaxis | No Prophylaxis | Relative (95% CI) |
Absolute (95% CI) |
|
| Risk of UTI recurrence (follow-up: mean 18 months; assessed as rates of recurrence) | |||||||||||
| 2 [20,50] | randomized trials | not serious a | not serious | not serious | serious b | strong association | 19/134 (14.2%) | 38/132 (28.8%) |
RR 0.49 (0.30 to 0.81) |
147 fewer per 1000 (202 fewer–55 fewer) |
⨁⨁⨁⨁ High |
| Risk of new renal scars (follow-up: mean 24 months; assessed as rates of new renal scars on DMSA scan) | |||||||||||
| 1 [51] | randomized trials | not serious | not serious | not serious | very serious c | none | 4/68 (5.9%) | 12/68 (17.6%) |
RR 0.47 (0.20 to 1.11) |
94 fewer per 1000 (141 fewer–19 more) |
⨁⨁◯◯ Low |
CI: confidence interval; RR: risk ratio. a: complete risk of bias analysis with results for single domains of the RoB2 tool is presented in Supplementary Materials. b: OIS criterion is not met. c: OIS criterion is not met and 95% CI overlaps no effect.