About Approach
Children with recurrent respiratory tract infections are often treated with prolonged courses of prophylactic antibiotics taken on a daily basis. Despite its common use, there is no evidence that this is beneficial. Studies assessing the clinical effectiveness of antibiotic prophylaxis as well as potential adverse effects and antibiotic resistance development, are therefore urgently needed.
The Approach study is a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial comparing co-trimoxazole with placebo treatment in children with recurrent RTIs in 15 Dutch hospitals.
The Approach team
Principal investigators and primary affiliations
Dr. Lilly Verhagen (Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
Prof. Gertjan Driessen (Maastricht UMC+ & Juliana Kinderziekenhuis, The Netherlands)
Coordinating study team
Dr. Daphne Peeters (Paediatrician in training)
Drs. Sam Engels (PhD student)
Dr. Nan van Geloven (statistician)
Dr. Loes Visser (pharmacy)
Wieke Vrinds (research coordinator)
Participating hospitals and local PIs
Juliana Kinderziekenhuis (Den Haag) – Daphne Peeters, Gertjan Driessen, Mirjam van Veen
Radboudumc (Nijmegen) – Lilly Verhagen
Wilhelmina Kinderziekenhuis (Utrecht) – Joris van Montfrans
Spaarne Gasthuis (Hoofddorp/Haarlem) – Marlies van Houten
Isala (Zwolle) – Jolita Bekhof
VUmc (Amsterdam) – Merijn Bijlsma
Reinier de Graaf gasthuis (Delft) – Jeroen Noordzij
Groene Hart Ziekenhuis (Gouda) – Gerdien Dubbink
St. Antonius ziekenhuis (Nieuwegein) – Jojanneke Heidema
Haaglanden Medisch Centrum (Den Haag) – Jantien Bolt-Wieringa
Franciscus Gasthuis (Rotterdam) – Gerdien Tramper
Elisabeth-Tweestedenziekenhuis (Tilburg) – Charlie Obihara
Jeroen Bosch Ziekenhuis (‘s-Hertogenbosch) – Lisanne Fontane Pennock-Janssen
Bernhoven (Uden) – Jan van der Linden
Zuyderland Medisch Centrum (Heerlen) – Eric de Groot
Related publications
- D Peeters, N van Geloven, LE Visser, D Bogaert, AMC van Rossum, GJA Driessen, LM Verhagen. Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial evaluating the clinical effect of antibiotic prophylaxis in children with recurrent respiratory tract infections: the Approach study. BMJ Open 2021;11:e044505.
Project funding
