ABSTRACT

Background: Acute watery diarrhea is a very common and sometimes fatal infectious illness, caused by a variety of bacterial, viral and parasitic organisms, the commonest being Rota virus. It accounts for approximately 1.5 million deaths per year globally. Although with the extensive use of ORS worldwide and institution of public health measures, the mortality associated with the diarrheal illness has decreased but the morbidity is still very high.

Objective: To compare a multispecies probiotic and Saccahomyces boulardii in children with acute watery diarrhea in terms of mean duration of diarrhea.

Design: It was a randomized controlled trial.

Study Settings: “Department of Neonatology, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Islamabad for a period of six months i.e, 1st January, 2020 to 30th June 2020”

Patients and Methods: With age 6 months to 5-years of either gender, 300 hospitalized patients were divided into two groups by lottery method. After obtaining informed consent from the parents/guardians, patients in group A was treated with 1 sachet of saccharomyces boulardii twice daily for 5 days, in addition to WHO recommended therapies for diarrhea i.e. ORS and Zinc with nutritional support. While the patients in Group B were treated with 1 sachet of a multispecies probiotic twice daily for 5 days along with the WHO recommended therapies for diarrhea. In both groups clinical response to therapy was calculated in terms of days taken for resolution of diarrhea determined by decrease in frequency of defecation and improvement of stool consistency from watery to semi solid. However, the drug was labeled ineffective in cases where the patient had no response to above medicines and these patients were administered alternatilvey

Results: Mean age (yrs, months) of the patients in both the groups was 1.55+1.43 and 1.34+1.22 respectively. At presentation, mean duration of diarrhea in both the groups was 4.54+1.53 and 4.61+1.41 respectively, which was statistically not significant (p-value 0.653)/ Similarly, Mean duration of diarrhea at 5 day in both the groups was 2.60+0.87 and 2.71+0.86 respectively and it was not significant statistically (p-value 0.289).

Conclusion: It was held that there is no difference between multispecies probiotic and saccharomyces boulardii in treatment of acute watery diarrhea in terms of mean duration of diarrhea.

Keywords: Acute watery diarrhea (AWD), Probiotics, Saccharomyces boulardii.