Effect of Synbiotic on the Treatment of Jaundice in Full Term Neonates: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
Summary of articles
- This is a randomized control trial
- Purpose of this study: investigate the effect of probiotics on the treatment of hyper-bilirubinemia in full-term neonates
- Method: 83 full-term neonates, who are admitted to hospital to receive phototherapy
- Phototherapy + synbiotic: 40 patients, 5 drops/day of synbiotics
- phototherapy: 43 patients
- Outcomes
Both groups are tested for serum bilirubin, urine, stool, feeding frequency, and weight are measured daily until discharge
- Results:
Phototherapy group + synbiotics vs control group: bili level of 9.38+/-2.37 vs. 11.17+/-2.60 mg/dL; length of hospitalization 2.5+/-0.58 vs. 2.9+/-0.89 days; urine frequency 6.860 vs. 5.500; stool frequency 5.528 vs. 3.903
- Conclusion
These findings indicate that synbiotics with phototherapy has a significant effect on jaundice neonates, with lower level of bilirubin, shorter length of hospitalization, higher frequency of urine and stool
- Relating to my patient
My patient, M.C is 3 days old female infant, who have elevated level of bilirubin which requires a phototherapy admission. If synbiotics is effective in reducing bilirubin level with shorter hospital stay, patient’s mother will prefer that. However, there are some limitations for this study. Sample size is small, and follow up time is short. Further studies, involving larger sample sizes and with longer follow-up, are required to validate the routine use of synbiotics in neonatal jaundice.