Introduction: Urinary tract infection is a very common infection affecting males and females but predominantly females.Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus spp. are 3 commonest community acquired uropathogens. Nitrofurantoin is commonly used as an oral antibiotic to treat urinary infections, right since 1953. It is more useful in lower UTI.

Materials and methods: We analyzed data from other studies in this context and also did a small retrospective analysis regarding Nitrofurantoin resistance in uropathogenic bacteria like E. coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus spp. from our data also.We used CLED for urine sample culture and Kirby-Bauer’s disk diffusion method for assessing antibiogram. Samples were all from Outpatient setting and mostly cystitis cases.

Results: According to other studies and also seconded by us, the Nitrofurantoin resistance is high in urine samples especially in Klebsiellaspp. which were always resistant, and also in Enterococcus spp. and E. coli. About 22.7% ofEnterococcus spp. and 33.3% of E. coli isolates were resistant in vitro to Nitrofurantoin in our cases. In Delhi a study found about 8% of the E. coli isolates were resistant to Nitrofurantoin.In India Nitrofurantoin resistance ratecan vary from 6% to 17% in Enterococcus spp.

Conclusion: Nitrofurantoin is not always safe to be used as empirical chemotherapy for suspected UTI. Thorough clinical examination should be done and only in lower UTI can it be used, but antibiotic resistance to this drug is coming up.Thesethings which are very important from public health viewpoint and also needed for empirical chemotherapy for these common uropathogens, pending antibiotic susceptibility.