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In an example of the continuing effort to shorten courses of antibiotics for common infections, U.S. Veterans Affairs investigators recruited 272 afebrile men (median age, 69) with one or more symptoms attributed to urinary tract infection (UTI); the most common symptoms were dysuria (67%), frequency (55%), and urgency (34%). Patients were enrolled within a 7-day window of outpatient treatment with ciprofloxacin or trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole. Urine culture was not required but was obtained in about 90% of patients. Patients were excluded if they had fever or growth of an organism that was not susceptible to the two antibiotics. At the end of their initial 7-day regimens, patients were randomized to an additional 7 days of their original …