Cranberry preparations, safe but of doubtful effectiveness for urinary tract infection in children

This paper has the structure of a critical appraised topic; it sought to determine the use of cranberry extracts in urinary tract infection prevention in children. The steps of evidence based medicine were followed: presentation of a clinical scenario, structured clinical question, bibliographic research and critical appraisal of the selected studies retrieved. Finally, an answer for the clinical scenario is provided.

Four studies were selected for the appraisal. The reviewed studies show discrepancies on the effectiveness of cranberry juice in the prevention of urinary tract infection recurrences.

The best conducted study finds some effectiveness of cranberry juice in reducing total urinary infections in the sample but not in the number of children with recurrences. The validity of the results of the other three studies should be interpreted with caution due to methodological limitations. Cranberry products seem safe.