Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine how often the results of urine and blood cultures led to changes in antibiotic therapy for patients discharged from the hospital with the diagnosis of pyelonephritis. ⋯ Urine cultures are useful in directing antibiotic therapy in patients with the discharge diagnosis of acute pyelonephritis and support a change in therapy in 5% of cases. Among the patients in this study, blood cultures results did not lead to changes in antibiotic therapy. These findings warrant prospective, multicenter evaluation.