http://www.news-medical.net/?id=27097

Published: Monday, 2-Jul-2007
Print - Yogurt drink helps patients avoid diarrhea caused by antibiotics
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Drug Trials

According to a new study by British researchers probiotic yogurt drinks
containing "good" bacteria help patients avoid the diarrhea caused by
antibiotics.

The study by researchers at Imperial College and London's Hammersmith
Hospital, found that drinks with the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus
help reduce diarrhea associated with the hospital superbug Clostridium
difficile and antibiotics in hospitalised patients.

Dietitian Mary Hickson of Imperial College and London's Hammersmith
Hospital and colleagues used Actimel, made by French food group Danone,
which contains three beneficial bacteria -- Lactobacillus casei,
Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus.

For the study, 135 patients age 50 or older were enlisted from three
London hospitals and were randomly assigned into two groups receiving
either Actimel or a sterile milk-shake with no probiotics.

The patients were given the drinks twice daily while they were being
treated with antibiotics and continued the probiotic treatment for one
week after the antibiotic therapy was completed.

It was found that only 12 percent of patients who used the probiotic
drinks developed antibiotic associated diarrhea, compared to 34 percent
in the control group.

Also no one in the study group experienced C. difficile-associated
diarrhea, compared to 17 percent in the control group.

The hospital trust and Danone shared the costs of the study by providing
the drink which cost $120 per patient, compared to a cost of $8,000 for
treating a case of diarrhea in the hospital.

The researchers say there were no adverse events and the drink was well
accepted and substantial savings could be made by the routine use of
probiotic drinks.

However they say it remains unclear exactly how the drink worked.

Experts say one in every 250 hospital deaths involves C. difficile as a
contributory or main factor and the bacteria is often resistant to
antibiotic treatment and can make patients seriously ill.

Between 5 percent and 25 percent of patients treated with antibiotics
develop diarrhea, in part because the drugs kill some of the bacteria
normally resident in the intestines.


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