%0 Journal Article
%T Efficacy and safety of Saccharomyces boulardii in the treatment of acute gastroenteritis in the paediatric population: a systematic review
%A Alfred Musekiwa
%A Estelle Viljoen
%A Janicke Visser
%A Morgambal Padayachee
%A Ren¨¦e Blaauw
%J South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.1080/16070658.2018.1449378
%X Context: Gastroenteritis (GE) remains the second major cause of death in the most vulnerable of the world¡¯s populations. Potential treatments include the use of probiotics, with the yeast Saccharomyces boulardii being one such option. Objectives: The primary objective was to assess the efficacy and safety of Saccharomyces boulardii in the treatment of acute GE in the paediatric population. Method: Major electronic databases were searched from April 2014 to January 2015. Additional literature was obtained through hand-searching and reviewing of reference lists of articles and other systematic reviews. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in a hospital setting, involving participants < 16 years were used as the data source. Two reviewers independently screened studies for eligibility, assessed study quality and performed data extraction. Review Manager 5 was used to analyse data and a random-effects model of meta-analysis was applied owing to heterogeneity. Results: Ten of 190 articles were selected for final inclusion. A meta-analysis of five of the included studies showed that Saccharomyces boulardii compared with the control significantly shortened the duration of diarrhoea (in days) (MD ¨C0.57, 95% CI ¨C0.83 to ¨C0.30, p < 0.0001), but there was no difference between groups regarding time to achieving formed stools. No adverse effects were reported. The GRADE tool assessed overall methodological quality as moderate. Conclusion: Saccharomyces boulardii showed a potential benefit in treating acute GE in the paediatric patient. A dose of 250 mg 1¨C2 times per day for up to 5 days showed some benefit and appears safe. Larger, rigorous RCTs are needed to investigate the efficacy and safety of Saccharomyces boulardii in order to offer specific treatment guidelines. Trial registration: CRD42014009913
%U https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16070658.2018.1449378