Atiya Khan, Tahir Javed, Akmal Laeeq Chishti.
Clinical efficacy of use of probiotic 'saccharomyces boulardii' in children with acute watery diarrhea.
Pak Paed J Jan ;36(3):122-7.

Objective: To determine the clinical efficacy of probiotics Saccharomyces boulardii in children admitted with acute watery diarrhoea Design: Randomized controlled trial Setting and Duration: Department of Pediatric Medicine Unit-II, Mayo Hospital Lahore from June 2009 to November 2009 (6 months). Patients and Methods: Four hundred and twenty children, presenting with acute watery diarrhea, aged 2 months to 5 years were enrolled after obtaining informed written consent and randomly assigned to 2 equal groups. Group1 was given probiotic (S. boulardii in sachet form) in addition to ORS as per WHO guidelines, while control group received ORS alone. Treatment response was observed in terms of stool consistency and frequency and duration of diarrhea. Information was collected on a preformed standardized questionnaire. Results were analyzed on SPSS version 11. Results: Statistically significant differences in terms of stool consistency and frequency were noted in S.boulardii group from 2nd day of treatment onwards. The S.boulardii group also showed reduction in mean duration of diarrhea by 1.1 day compared with control group. Conclusion: The use of S. boulardii in the treatment of acute diarrhoea in children yielded encouraging results by improving the consistency of stools and decreasing the duration of diarrhea and frequency of stools per 24 hours.

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