The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7490 p207
23 February 2008

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Enteral probiotics should not be considered harmless

Probiotics can no longer be considered to be harmless adjuncts to enteral nutrition, according to the authors of a study published online in The Lancet (14 February 2008).

In the study of 296 patients with predicted severe acute pancreatitis, enteral probiotic prophylaxis did not reduce the risk of complications and was associated with more deaths than placebo (16 per cent versus 6 per cent; P=0.01).

Bowel ischaemia accounted for eight deaths in the probiotic group and none in the placebo group.