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Article
Multicenter Trial of a Combination Probiotic for Children with Gastroenteritis.
The New England Journal of Medicine
  • Stephen B Freedman
  • Sarah Williamson-Urquhart
  • Ken J Farion
  • Serge Gouin
  • Andrew R Willan
  • Naveen Poonai, Western University
  • Katrina Hurley
  • Philip M Sherman
  • Yaron Finkelstein
  • Bonita E Lee
  • Xiao-Li Pang
  • Linda Chui
  • David Schnadower
  • Jianling Xie
  • Marc Gorelick
  • Suzanne Schuh
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-22-2018
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1802597
Disciplines
Abstract

Background

Gastroenteritis accounts for approximately 1.7 million visits to the emergency department (ED) by children in the United States every year. Data to determine whether the use of probiotics improves outcomes in these children are lacking.

Methods

We conducted a randomized, double-blind trial involving 886 children 3 to 48 months of age with gastroenteritis who presented to six pediatric EDs in Canada. Participants received a 5-day course of a combination probiotic product containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus R0011 and L. helveticus R0052, at a dose of 4.0×10

Results

Moderate-to-severe gastroenteritis within 14 days after enrollment occurred in 108 of 414 participants (26.1%) who were assigned to probiotics and 102 of 413 participants (24.7%) who were assigned to placebo (odds ratio, 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.77 to 1.46; P=0.72). After adjustment for trial site, age, detection of rotavirus in stool, and frequency of diarrhea and vomiting before enrollment, trial-group assignment did not predict moderate-to-severe gastroenteritis (odds ratio, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.76 to 1.49; P=0.74). There were no significant differences between the probiotic group and the placebo group in the median duration of diarrhea (52.5 hours [interquartile range, 18.3 to 95.8] and 55.5 hours [interquartile range, 20.2 to 102.3], respectively; P=0.31) or vomiting (17.7 hours [interquartile range, 0 to 58.6] and 18.7 hours [interquartile range, 0 to 51.6], P=0.18), the percentages of participants with unscheduled visits to a health care provider (30.2% and 26.6%; odds ratio, 1.19; 95% CI, 0.87 to 1.62; P=0.27), and the percentage of participants who reported an adverse event (34.8% and 38.7%; odds ratio, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.62 to 1.11; P=0.21).

Conclusions

In children who presented to the emergency department with gastroenteritis, twice-daily administration of a combined L. rhamnosus-L. helveticus probiotic did not prevent the development of moderate-to-severe gastroenteritis within 14 days after enrollment. (Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and others; PROGUT ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01853124 .).

Notes

Article originally published in The New England Journal of Medicine

https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa1802597

Copyright © 2018 Massachusetts Medical Society

Citation Information
Stephen B Freedman, Sarah Williamson-Urquhart, Ken J Farion, Serge Gouin, et al.. "Multicenter Trial of a Combination Probiotic for Children with Gastroenteritis." The New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 379 Iss. 21 (2018) p. 2015 - 2026
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/naveen-poonai/16/