BACKGROUND: @entity86 , particularly surgical site infections (SSIs), cause significant morbidity and mortality. Probiotics or synbiotics are a potential prevention strategy. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of probiotics/synbiotics for reducing @entity86 risk following abdominal surgery. METHODS: We searched AMED, Central, CINAHL, Embase, Medline, and grey literature for randomized controlled trials of elective abdominal surgery @entity1 administered probiotics or synbiotics compared to placebo or standard care. Primary outcome was SSIs. Secondary outcomes were adverse events, @entity1729 ( @entity1729 ), @entity293 ( @entity293 ), combined infections, length of hospital stay, and mortality. Using random-effects meta-analyses, we estimated the relative risk (RR) or mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence interval (CI). Tests were performed for heterogeneity, subgroup and sensitivity analyses were conducted, and the overall evidence quality was graded. FINDINGS: We identified 20 trials (N  =  1374 @entity1 ) reporting @entity86 . Probiotics/synbiotics reduced SSIs (RR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.41-0.98; N  =  15 studies), @entity293 (RR: 0.29; 95% CI: 0.15-0.57; N  =  11), and combined infections (RR: 0.49; 95% CI: 0.35-0.70; N  =  18). There was no difference between groups for adverse events (RR: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.61-1.30; N  =  6), @entity1729 (RR: 0.60; 95% CI: 0.36-1.00; N  =  14), length of stay (MD:  -1.19; 95% CI:  -2.94 to 0.56; N  =  12), or mortality (RR: 1.20; 95% CI: 0.58-2.48; N  =  15). CONCLUSION: Our review suggests that probiotics/synbiotics reduce SSIs and @entity293 from abdominal surgeries compared to placebo or standard of care, without evidence of safety risk. Overall study quality was low, owing mostly to imprecision (few @entity1 and events, or wide CIs); thus larger multi-centered trials are needed to further assess the certainty in this estimate.

Probiotics and synbiotics for the prevention of XXXX following abdominal surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants', 'patients'] @entity1729 :: ('MESH:D012141', 'Disease') :: ['respiratory tract infections', 'RTIs'] @entity86 :: ('MESH:D019106', 'Disease') :: ['postoperative infections', 'Postoperative infections', 'postoperative infection'] @entity293 :: ('MESH:D014552', 'Disease') :: ['urinary tract infections', 'UTIs']
@entity86 :: (MESH:D019106,Disease) :: ['postoperative infections']
