Saccharomyces boulardiifor prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants: a randomized, controlled study

Abstract

Although Saccharomyces boulardii supplementation at a dose of 250 mg/day was not effective at reducing the incidence of death or NEC in VLBW infants, it improved feeding tolerance and reduced the risk of clinical sepsis.

The “Golden Age” of Probiotics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized and Observational Studies in Preterm Infants

“…Twenty-eight trials [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47] reported on late-onset sepsis. The administration of probiotics reduced the rate of sepsis in the pooled effect by 12% (typical RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.80-0.97, p = 0.01; Fig.…”

“…The administration of Lactobacillus GG [23,34,35,36] and Bifidobacterium lactis [25,37,29] species alone significantly reduced the incidence of severe stage II-III NEC (RR 0.31, 95% CI 0.12-0.76, and RR 0.24, 95% CI 0.10-0.58, respectively). The pooled effect of the included trials that utilized L. reuteri [38,40], B. breve [22,39] and Saccharomyces boulardii alone [24,45,62] showed a lack of significant reduction of severe NEC stage II-III (RR 0.71, 95% CI 0.37-1.39, and RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.67-1.28; RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.44-1.50, respectively). Subgroup analysis identified that mixtures of 2 types and mixtures of more than 2 types of probiotics were most beneficial in reducing the risk of NEC (RR = 0.34; 95% CI 0.17-0.67, p = 0.002, and RR = 0.40; 95% CI 0.26-0.64, p < 0.0001, respectively; online suppl.…”

“…Doses of individual probiotics varied, and were administered with human milk feeding [21,34,48,58], formula feeding [62], or both in some studies [23,24,25,27,32,33]. Probiotic supplementation in some studies was started as soon as minimal enteral feeding was commenced [23,38,48], or within 48 h [24,47,50], or when infants had stable vital signs [21,32,33,37,40]. In other studies it was initiated as soon as the infants could tolerate enteral feeding [62,63], or as soon as possible after randomization, whether or not enteral feeding had begun [22].…”

Benefits of probiotics on enteral nutrition in preterm neonates: a systematic review

“…There were 3 publications from the same study population by Demirel et al (53)(54)(55) that evaluated the effect of probiotic supplementation on different outcomes; hence, we have considered these 3 publications as a single study. The total sample size in the review was 5895 subjects with a median of 183 subjects (range: 31-1099 subjects).…”

“…Probiotic supplementation was shown to reduce the duration of hospitalization (43,50,60,62), incidence of feed intolerance (37,46,50,55,60), and duration of indirect hyperbilirubinemia (53). The supplementation improved weight gain in the hospital (37,46) and growth velocity (48).…”