A retrospective study of probiotics for the treatment of children with antibiotic-associated diarrhea

Abstract

This retrospective study aimed to explore the benefits and safety of probiotics (live combined Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium granules with multivitamines) for the treatment of children with antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). A total of 72 children with AAD were analyzed in this study. Of these, 36 children received routine treatment plus probiotics, and were assigned to a treatment group. The other 36 children underwent routine treatment alone, and were assigned to a control group. Patients in both groups were treated for a total of 7 days. The efficacy and safety were evaluated by duration of diarrhea (days), number of dressings needed daily, abdominal pain intensity, stool consistency (as assessed by Bristol Stool Scale (BSS)), and any adverse events. After treatment, probiotics showed encouraging benefits in decreasing duration of diarrhea (days) (P < .01), number of dressings needed every day (P < .01), abdominal pain intensity (P < .01), and stool consistency (BSS (3–5), P < .01; BSS (6–7), P < .01). In addition, no adverse events were documented in this study. The findings of this study demonstrated that probiotics may provide promising benefit for children with AAD. Further studies are still needed to warrant theses findings.

Effect of a Multispecies Probiotic Mixture on the Growth and Incidence of Diarrhea, Immune Function, and Fecal Microbiota of Pre-weaning Dairy Calves

“…Multispecies probiotics [Lactobacillus acidophilus (McFarland et al, 2018;Łukasik and Szajewska, 2018), Bacillus subtilis (Rui and Ma, 2020), Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Thévenot et al, 2015)] have achieved certain results in human application, and there are similar reports in animals. Studies have found that Lactobacillus acidophilus (Sharma et al, 2018), Bacillus subtilis (Sun et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2017;Wood et al, 2019), and Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Fomenky et al, 2018;Villot et al, 2019) can improve calf growth performance by improving immune function and balancing the structure of intestinal microbiota.…”

Effect of Simulated Gastrointestinal Tract Conditions on Survivability of Probiotic Bacteria Present in Commercial Preparations

“…It is estimated that from 11 to 30% of children treated with antibiotics (mainly β-lactam ones and vancomycin) suffer from intestinal discomfort and diarrheas [11][12][13]. Diarrhea is especially dangerous for small children/toddlers as it may cause malfunction of the water-electrolyte balance of their bodies within a short period of time [14].…”