title: Probiotics in patients with severe acute pancreatitis: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study focuses on probiotics in patients with severe acute pancreatitis. It assesses whether enteral feeding with probiotics use reduces infected necrosis and death in severe acute pancreatitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched the Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, and Chinese Biomedicine Database. Quality assessment and data extraction were done by two reviewers independently. The statistical analysis was performed by RevMan4.2.10 software. The result was expressed with odds ratio (OR) for the categorical variable.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four studies were included. The result showed that using probiotics could not reduce the risk of infection pancreatic necrosis (OR = 0.56, 95% CI [0.13, 2.35]). There is no significant difference between the two groups in mortality (OR = 0.83, 95% CI [0.14, 4.83]), the mean duration of hospital (WMD = -1.20, 95% CI [-13.13, 10.92]) and the required operation (OR = 0.59, 95% CI [0.11, 3.07]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study showed the enteral feeding with probiotic could not reduce the infected necrosis and mortality. Future large-scale, high-quality, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials are needed.
authors.affiliation: The Evidence-Based Medicine Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, China.
authors.forename: Shaoliang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Kehu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Jinhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D015897:Comorbidity; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D006801:Humans; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D016017:Odds Ratio; D019283:Pancreatitis, Acute Necrotizing / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D019936:Probiotics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome