I just got out of the hospital for cellulitis where I was treated with IV antibiotics. My discharges notes said “take antibiotics to prevent diarrhea”. I asked which ones… blank faces. No one seem to have a concrete idea. So this is a review of the literature:
- “Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) occurs in approximately 25% of patients receiving antibiotics.” [2008]
- ” analyzing 25 randomized controlled trials of probiotics for the prevention of AAD … more than half of the trials demonstrated efficacy of the probiotic. ” So a random probiotic may have just a 50% chance of being effective. [2008]
- “We identified no evidence that a multistrain preparation of lactobacilli and bifidobacteria was effective in prevention of AAD or CDD. ” [2013]
- Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium (A Retrospective Study of Probiotics for the Treatment of Children With Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea [2020])
- Lactobacillus casei DN 11400 (Commercially Available Probiotic Drinks Containing Lactobacillus Casei DN-114001 Reduce Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea, 2014) i.e. Yakult drink
- Lactobacillus GG (culturelle), Bacillus coagulans, and S. boulardii appeared to be most effective [2008]
If you find any other studies that is explicit on the probiotic strains used with good results, please email me at Ken/at\lassesen.com
To help find which probiotics contain the above see this page.