A trial in the Karelian Republic of oral rehydration and Lactobacillus GG for treatment of acute diarrhoea

• Published in: Acta Paediatrica
• Main Authors: Shornikova, A‐V, Isolauri, E, Burkanova, L, Lukovnikova, S, Vesikari, T
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1997
• Subjects: General Medicine; Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health; karelian
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.1997.tb08913.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1651-2227.1997.tb08913.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1651-2227.1997.tb08913.x

In a controlled trial in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, the effects of oral rehydration and Lactobacillus strain GG (LGG) on recovery from acute diarrhoea (27% rotavirus, 21% bacterial aetiology) were studied in 123 children aged between 1 and 36 months of age. On admission to hospital, the patients were first randomized to receive either isotonic oral rehydration solution (ORS) with osmolality 311mosmol/l and sodium 90mmol/l (WHO‐ORS), or a hypotonic ORS with osmolality 224mosmol/l and sodium 60mmol/l (Light‐ORS), and thereafter randomized to receive either 5 × 10 9 colony forming units of LGG or a matching placebo. The two ORS performed equally for acute rehydration, and oral rehydration with either ORS was associated with a shorter duration of diarrhoea than intravenous rehydration ( p = 0.036). Patients receiving LGG had a significantly shorter duration of watery diarrhoea [mean (SD) 2.7 (2.2) days] than those receiving the placebo [3.7 (2.8) days, p = 0.03]. LGG significantly shortened the duration of rotavirus diarrhoea but not diarrhoea with confirmed bacterial aetiology.