• Ozge Serce, Derya Benzer, Tugba Gursoy, Guner Karatekin, and Fahri Ovali.
• Zeynep Kamil Maternity and Children's Research and Training Hospital, Neonatology Unit, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: ozge_serce@hotmail.com.
• Early Hum. Dev. 2013 Dec 1;89(12):1033-6.

BackgroundProbiotics have strain specific effects and the effects of fungi in preventing diseases in preterm infants have been investigated poorly. Saccharomyces boulardii is a yeast which acts both as a probiotic and a polyamine producer.AimThe objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of S. boulardii in preventing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or sepsis in very low birth weight infants.Study Design And SubjectsA prospective, double blind, placebo controlled trial was conducted in preterm infants (≤ 32 GWs, ≤ 1500 g birth weight). They were randomized either to receive feeding supplementation with S. boulardii 50 mg/kg every 12 h or placebo, starting with the first feed until discharged.Outcome MeasuresNecrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) or sepsis and NEC or death.ResultsBirth weight and gestational age of the study (n = 104) and the control (n = 104) groups were 1126 ± 232 vs 1162 ± 216 g and 28.8 ± 2.2 vs 28.7 ± 2.1 weeks, respectively. Neither the incidence of stage ≥ 2 NEC or death nor stage ≥ 2 NEC or late onset culture proven sepsis was significantly lower in the study group when compared with the control group (9.6% vs 7.7%, p = 0.62; 28.8% vs 23%, p = 0.34). Time to reach 100 mL/kg/day of enteral feeding (11.9 ± 7 vs 12.6 ± 7 days, p = 0.37) was not different between the groups.ConclusionsSaccharomyces boulardii did not decrease the incidence of NEC or sepsis.© 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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