Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are conditions frequently complained by women both in the general population and in the hospital setting. Indeed it has been estimated that one woman out of three will experience at least an episode of UTI during lifetime. A comprehensive literature review of published experimental and clinical studies of UTI was carried out at the University of Insubria electronic library (SFX Bicocca-Insubria) with cross-search of seven different medical databases (AMED, BIOSIS Previews on Web of Knowledge, Cochrane Library, Embase and Medline on Web of Knowledge, OvidSP and PubMed). We aimed to draw a clinical guideline addressed to the management of UTI, based on the most recent evidence. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.