Value of Probiotic in Reducing Frequency of Infectious Complications in Premature Infants

Abstract

Fifty five premature infants with very low body weight were observed as inpatients to assess effectiveness of the nursing. The standard program of the care included: adequate primary resuscitation, respiratory support (use of surfactant), thermal mode, early provision of nutrients with full or partial parenteral nutrition, antimicrobial therapy and if possible early enteral nutrition. The patients of the main group (n=29) along with the standard therapy (the volume of the enteral nutrition of 5 ml or more) were treated orally with liquid probiotic based on E.faecium L3 in a dose of 0.5 ml (5x108 CFU) 3 times a day for 14 days. The control group (n=26) was under the standard therapy. The effectiveness of the infants management was estimated by the frequency of disruption of the nutrition, the frequency of infectious complications, the changes in the hematologic indices, the dynamics of the composition of the intestinal microflora. The infectious complications were evident from perinatal viral infection, intraamniotic infection, necrotizing enterocolitis. In the main group patients there was recorded a significant decrease of the frequency of infectious complications: 20.7% against 53.9% in the control group patients. The use of probiotic strain E.faecium L3 in the preterm infants promoted conservation of the immunomodulatory function of the intestinal indigenic microflora and restricted the growth of the nosocomial flora.

Keywords

• preterm infants
• infectious complications
• neonatal period
• microflora
• treatment
• probiotics
• enterococcus