The Effects Of Probiotics For Premature Infants

Objective: To study the efficacy and safety of Bifidobacterium andRhamnosus Lactobacillus in premature infants.Methods：It’s a retrospective cohort study. We found22low birthweight preterm infants from all the neonatal patients in our hospitalbetween October2010and December2011,and they were feeding withBifidobacterium and Rhamnosus Lactobacillus. Choosing22infantsrandomly from the hospitalized neonate who didn’t treat with probiotics inthe same time as the control group. The infants in the study group were fedwith formula milk with probiotics, once daily. Infants in the control groupwere fed with formula milk alone. The incidence of extrauterine growthrestriction, the time to regain birth weight, the time to reach full enteralnutrition, the time of hospitalization stay, the time of using parenteralnutrition, the hospital expenses, and the incidence of abrosia andnecrotizing enterocolitis were compared between the two groups. Wecollected14preterm infants with necrotizing enterocolitis who were inhospital between October2010and December2011, and they were treatedwith probiotics. We randomly choose14preterm infants with NEC who were in hospital in the same time as control group, and they were nottreated with probiotics. The time of parenteral nutrition, the time of abrosiaand the finally outcome were compared in this study. At the same timecollected the records of adverse reactions.Results：There is no significant differences between the low birth weightpremature infants study group and control group in the incidence ofextrauterine growth restriction, the time to regain birth weight, the time toreach full enteral nutrition, the time of hospitalization stay, the time ofusing parenteral nutrition, the hospital expenses, and the incidence ofabrosia. Preterm infants with NEC in study group had a shorter time ofabrosia, but the difference was not significant（8±5.3vs10±5.9, P=0.355）.There is no adverse reactions in all the premature infants with probiotictreatment.Conclusions：We did not found that feeding Bifidobacterium andRhamnosus Lactobacillus can significantly short the time of hospitalizationstay, promote weight growth, short the time of reaching full enteralnutrition, but the Bifidobacterium and Rhamnosus can reduce the severityof necrotizing enterocolitis and it’s safe for preterm infants to oralBifidobacterium and Rhamnosus Lactobacillus.