Effects of prebiotics on sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, mortality, feeding intolerance, time to full enteral feeding, length of hospital stay, and stool frequency in preterm infants: a meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background/objectives

Prebiotics are increasingly recognized as an effective measure to promote health and prevent adverse health outcomes in preterm infants. We aimed to systematically review the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in this area.

Subjects/methods

Relevant studies from January 2000 to June 2018 were searched and selected from PubMed, Medline, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library. RCTs were included if they involved preterm infant participants, included a prebiotic intervention group, measured incidence of sepsis, feeding intolerance, mortality, time to full enteral feeding, necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), length of hospital stay, and stool frequency as outcomes.

Results

Eighteen RCTs (n = 1322) were included in the final meta-analysis. Participants who to

SUBMITTER: Chi C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6760619 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature