Objective: Helicobacter pylori
is recognized as a major etiological factor in the pathogenesis of gastritis and
peptic ulcer disease.
H. Pylori eradication has a failure rate of more than 30% in pediatric patients,
particularly because of poor compliance, antibiotic resistance and occurrence of side-effects. This study was
aimed to determine whether adding the probiotics to a standard anti-
H. Pylori regimen could minimize the
gastrointestinal side-effect prevalence and improve the eradication rate.
Methods: Double-blind randomized placebo controlled study conducted at Children’s Medical Center in
Tehran, Iran. Sixty six
H. Pylori positive children were treated with a triple drug treatment protocol
(omeprazole+amoxycillin+furazolidon) and randomly allocated to receive either probiotic or placebo. All
patients underwent esophagogastroduodendoscopy.
H. Pylori infection was diagnosed by either rapid urease
test (RUT) or histology.
H. Pylori status was assessed after 4-8 weeks of the completion of treatment with
stool
H. Pylori antigen test. The side effects of the treatment were determined in each group.
Findings:. Mean age of patients was 9.09 (range 3‐14) years, 44 (65.7%) patients were boys (sex ratio 2:1). All
66 patients completed the course of treatment and follow-up. The rate of
H. Pylori eradication was
significantly higher in probiotic group (P=0.04). In probiotic supplemented children there was a lower rate of
nausea/vomiting (P=0.02) and diarrhea (P=0.039) during treatment.
Conclusion: This study showed that probiotics have positive effect on the eradication of
H. Pylori infection.
Adjuvant therapy with probiotic is recommended in order to reduce the frequency of antibiotic induced sideeffects
during treatment with antibiotics.
