D-Mannose appears ineffective for UTI prevention

Authors of a new study said that “d-Mannose should not be recommended to prevent future episodes of medically attended UTI in women with recurrent UTI in primary care.”

The research findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that the use of this supplement—a natural sugar used to treat UTIs—did not reduce future UTI episodes, outpatient visits, antibiotic prescriptions, or UTI symptoms compared with a placebo.

Researchers investigated whether daily use of d-mannose could be used as prophylaxis for women with recurrent UTIs (rUTIs). The randomized clinical trial included 598 women with rUTIs, which was defined as having two or more UTIs in 6 months or three within the past year. Participants were randomly assigned to d-mannose powder 2 mg or a matching volume of placebo powder.

The primary outcome—the proportion of women experiencing at least one further episode of clinically suspected UTI for which they contacted ambulatory care within 6 months of randomization—was 51.0% in the d-mannose group and 55.7% in the placebo group.

There was no statistically significant differences in any secondary outcome measures, including symptom duration, antibiotic use, time to next medically attended UTI, number of suspected UTIs, and UTI-related hospital admissions.

“In this randomized clinical trial, daily d-mannose did not reduce the proportion of women with recurrent UTI in primary care who experienced a subsequent clinically suspected UTI,” the researchers wrote.