A recent retrospective study (AF Kane et al. J Pediatr 2018; 195: 73-9) with 640 VLBW infants found that the probiobiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG), was associated with an increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).
LGG supplementation was started at a median age of 6 days at a dose of 2.5 to 5 x 10 to the 9th CFU/day.
Key finding:
- LGG group had an aOR of 2.10 for developing NEC. LGG group NEC incidence was 16.8% whereas NEC incidence was 10.2% prior to institution of LGG.
The authors note their findings are in contrast to findings from 38 randomized trials (10,520) which have found that probiotics lowered the risk of NEC.
My take: This study reinforces the need for further studies to identify which factors and probiotic strains are likely to lead to reduced rates of NEC.
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Your title is not correct—if you read the article and title of the official article it did not INCREASE the risk of NEC there was no difference in the rate and no side effects to it’s use.
I disagree. According to the results: “The incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis in the epoch before LGG implementation was 10.2% compared with 16.8% after implementation. In multivariable analysis, LGG supplementation was associated with a higher risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (aOR 2.10, 95 % CI 1.25-3.54, P = .005).” Here’s a link: http://www.jpeds.com/article/S0022-3476(17)31611-6/fulltext