Used alongside rehydration therapy, probiotics appear to be safe and have clear beneficial effects in shortening the duration and reducing stool frequency in acute infectious diarrhoea. However, more research is needed to guide the use of particular probiotic regimens in specific patient groups.
Effect of Saccharomyces boulardii in children with acute gastroenteritis and its relationship to the immune response.
We evaluated the effect of Saccharomyces boulardii administration in otherwise healthy children aged between 6 months and 10 years who were admitted for acute diarrhoea (15 males, 12 females). The patients were randomized into two groups: group 1 (n = 16) received 250 mg S. boulardii dissolved in 5 ml of water orally twice daily for 7 days and group 2 (n = 11) received placebo. Clinical and laboratory assessments were performed on admission and on day 7 of follow-up. Both groups experienced reduced daily stool frequency, the decrease being significantly greater in group 1 on days 3 and 4 compared with group 2. Group 1 demonstrated significant increases in serum immunoglobulin A and decreases in C-reactive protein levels on day 7. The percentage of CD8 lymphocytes on day 7 was significantly higher in group 1 than group 2. This study confirmed the efficacy of S. boulardii in paediatric acute gastroenteritis and the findings suggest that S. boulardii treatment enhances the immune response.