TO ENHANCE THE META-ANALYSIS STUDY ON SACCHAROMYCES BOULARDII'S EFFICACY IN REDUCING ANTIMICROBIAL DIARRHEA IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Background: Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is a major side effect of antibiotic therapy, although it might be avoided by taking probiotics.

Purpose: To enhance our meta-analysis on Saccharomyces boulardii's effectiveness in preventing antimicrobial diarrhea in kids and adults.

Methods: Until May 2020, the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and EMBASE libraries were screened for randomized clinical trials despite language restrictions; additional references were gathered from relevant literature. Our current research was conducted at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore from March, 2020 to February, 2021. The grading of references, valuation, progress and appraisal criteria were used to evaluate the strength of the data.

Results: This revised systematic study included twenty-one randomized controlled trials with a total of 476 individuals, 19 of which have been undergone through a new research. Antibiotic treatment, compared with the placebo or no therapy, decreased the incidence of antimicrobial diarrhea in patients taking antibiotics from 16.9% to 9.7% (risk ratio (RR): 0.48; 96 percent confidence interval (CI): 0.35-0.58, number needed) (as assessed by the study investigators). S. boulardii has decreased the risk from 21.6 percent to 6.5 percent in children (6 randomized controlled experiments, n=1654, RR: 0.45; 96 percent, CI: 0.4-0.7) and from 16.5 percent to 7.3 percent in adults (16 randomized clinical trials, n=3115, RR: 0.48; 96 percent, CI: 0.39-0.65). In contrast, S. boulardii decreased the incidence of Clostridium difficile-related diarrhea, except in children (2 randomized controlled trials). Adults (5 randomized controlled studies, n = 1431, RR: 0.9; 96 percent CI: 0.48-1.35) and children (2 randomized control trials, n = 578, RR: 0.26; 96 percent CI: 0.09-0.74) were not affected.

Conclusion: S. boulardii is helpful in reducing the chances of antimicrobial diarrhea in both kids and adults, according to the same meta-analysis.

Keywords: Meta-analysis study, Saccharomyces boulardii's efficacy, Antimicrobial diarrhea, Children and young adults.