Efficacy and safety of probiotics in the induction and maintenance of inflammatory bowel disease remission: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Probiotics have been widely used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) due to their special conditioning effects on the intestinal flora, but their efficacy in inducing and maintaining remission is still controversial. In the present study, we analyzed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the treatment of probiotics in IBD to systematically evaluate the efficacy of probiotics on the induction and maintenance of remission of IBD.

METHODS

PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, Web of Science, Chinese Journal Full-text Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Wanfang, and Weipu databases were searched for RCTs on the treatment of probiotics in IBD induction and/or maintenance of remission. Two researchers independently extracted literature data and cross-checked the extracted data. The Cochrane bias risk assessment tool and the Jadad score were used to evaluate the quality of the literature. RevMan 5.20 software was used for the meta-analysis.

RESULTS

A total of ten RCTs were included, which included 777 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference between the clinical recurrence rate of probiotics in the CD remission phase and the control group [relative risk (RR): 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61-1.06, P=0.12]. The clinical recurrence rate of UC in remission phase, the efficacy of probiotics compared with control group were not significantly different (RR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.80-1.42, P=0.65). The induction remission rate of UC during the active phase, the efficacy of probiotics is better than that of the control group (RR: 1.47, 95% CI: 1.09-1.98, P=0.01).

DISCUSSION

In the present study, a systematic analysis of the efficacy of probiotics in CD and UC found that probiotics can induce remission during the active period of UC, but have no obvious therapeutic advantage in maintaining CD and UC remission.