The results do not provide sufficient evidence for or against recommending probiotics for the treatment of BV .
BACKGROUND The dominance of lactobacilli in healthy vaginal microbiota and its depletion in bacterial vaginosis ( BV ) has given rise to the concept of oral or vaginal instillation of probiotic Lactobacillus strains for the management of this condition .
OBJECTIVES To ascertain the efficacy of probiotics in the treatment of BV .
Efficacy of Povidone-Iodine Vaginal Suppositories in the Treatment of Bacterial Vaginosis
A prospect i ve , r and omized clinical trial was performed to study the efficacy of povidone iodine ( Betadine ® ) suppositories for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis ( BV ) in comparison to capsules containing lactobacilli ( Döderlein Med ® ) .  Seventy patients with BV included in the study were r and omly assigned to be either treated with povidone iodine suppositories or lactobacilli . Patients were treated once a day for 5 days . Initial examinations took place on the first day of the study with follow-up examinations on days 8 and 15 . The examinations included clinical parameters , patient evaluation , secretion screens , and quantitative and qualitative microbiological tests of vaginal flora . Both treatment groups showed improvement of clinical parameters , condition of secretions and subjective state of health . At day 15 there was a trend towards a better efficacy of the treatment with povidone iodine but this was not significant . However , patients with acute BV treated with povidone iodine had significantly better scores after 15 days . Both treatments were well tolerated . The microbiological examinations showed an increase of the mean number of lactobacilli in the vagina on day 8 after initiation of treatment with lactobacilli , but a decrease on day 15 . Contrary to that the lactobacilli counts from patients treated with povidone iodine suppositories decreased after the first week but increased in the second one . Potentially pathogenic germs , e.g. Gardnerella , Bacteroides and Enterobacteria were reduced in a higher extent and with a longer lasting effect after treatment with povidone iodine suppositories than with capsules containing lactobacilli . The results of this study show that native lactobacilli rapidly re-colonize after the antiseptic treatment with povidone iodine . Therefore , there is no need to use lactobacilli in addition
The results do not provide sufficient evidence for or against recommending probiotics for the treatment of BV .
BACKGROUND The dominance of lactobacilli in healthy vaginal microbiota and its depletion in bacterial vaginosis ( BV ) has given rise to the concept of oral or vaginal instillation of probiotic Lactobacillus strains for the management of this condition .
OBJECTIVES To ascertain the efficacy of probiotics in the treatment of BV .