Purpose To evaluate the efficacy of D-mannose for preventing recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), including in kidney transplant recipients, and to clarify discrepancies between early openlabel and placebo-controlled trials.
Materials and Methods: PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), and Web of Science were searched from inception to February 2026. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing D-mannose with placebo, no treatment, antibiotics, or active controls were included. Risk of bias (RoB) was assessed using RoB 2, and certainty of evidence using GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations).
Results Eleven RCT reports involving 1,724 participants were included; 10 independent study populations involving 1,631 participants contributed to quantitative analyses. In placebo-controlled trials, D-mannose did not significantly reduce UTI recurrence or persistence versus placebo (risk ratio [RR], 0.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.06–2.36). No-treatment comparisons showed reduced recurrence (RR, 0.23; 95% CI, 0.08–0.66), but were more vulnerable to expectation, performance, and detection biases. The exploratory combined estimate favored D-mannose (RR, 0.28; 95% CI, 0.12–0.66), but certainty was very low. Antibiotic comparisons were inconclusive (RR, 0.43; 95% CI, 0.18–1.05), whereas proanthocyanidins active-control comparisons favored D-mannose-containing regimens (RR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.40–0.82), including data from kidney transplant recipients.
Conclusions Current placebo-controlled evidence does not establish superiority of D-mannose over placebo. Apparent benefits were mainly driven by no-treatment comparisons with very low certainty. D-mannose remains biologically plausible but clinically uncertain; adequately powered, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials are needed before firm recommendations can be made.
Purpose: Retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) and percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) are performed to treat renal stones, and miniature PCNL (mPCNL) is used as an alternative to conventional PCNL. We conducted a systematic review of published studies regarding RIRS, PCNL, and mPCNL and performed network meta-analysis on successful outcome (stone-free) rates. Materials and Methods: The PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched up to December 2020. Data extraction formats were used to extract data on successful outcome rates, study designs, numbers of subjects and characteristics, and methods used to treat renal stones (i.e., RIRS, PCNL, or mPCNL). Results: Data obtained by 25 studies were used to compare the stone-free rates of RIRS, PCNL, and mPCNL; six comparisons of PCNL and mPCNL, seven of mPCNL and RIRS, and 12 of RIRS and PCNL were analyzed. No difference was found between the stone-free rates of PCNL and mPCNL (odds ratio [OR]: 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.51-1.9) by network meta-analysis. However, the stone-free rate of RIRS was lower than that of mPCNL (OR: 0.41; 95% CI: 0.021-0.82) and PCNL (OR: 0.43; 95% CI: 0.22-0.82). Ranking analysis ranked mPCNL as No. 1 and PCNL as No. 2. Conclusions: PCNL and mPCNL had better stone-free rates than RIRS for the treatment of renal stones, but the treatment outcomes of PCNL and mPCNL were no different.
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