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Effectiveness of Oral Probiotics in Prevention of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in Preterm Infants

Objective: To determine the efficacy of probiotics in the prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm infants. 
Materials And Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted at the paediatric department of CMH Muzaffarabad AJK. All preterm bottle and NG-fed neonates with an age of more than 24 hours and both genders were included. All the study subjects were divided into two groups randomly as group-A and group-B.  Group-A was given probiotics (named Bifidobacterium prophylactically, hiflora, or gutcare, one sachet per day), while in Group-B probiotics were not given. All the cases were taken under observation. If they needed any critical or intensive care, they were excluded from the study and other treatments were given as per hospital protocol. Patients were followed for 7 days. Efficacy in both groups was measured in terms of no occurrence of NEC during one week. All related data was collected on a study proforma. 
Results: The average age of the neonates in the probiotic group was 11.77 \(\pm\) 6.52 days, and in the control group it was 13.41 \(\pm\) 6.86 days. There were 42.1% boys and 57.9% girls were in the probiotic group, while 54% of males and 46% of females were in the control group. The frequency of NEC was statistically higher in control group 28 (11.9%) compared to the probiotic group 5 (2.1%), indicating the oral probiotic showed significant efficacy (p- 0.001). 
Conclusion: Oral probiotics have been found to be efficacious, noninvasive, and beneficial in the prevention of NEC. Probiotics must be utilized to prevent necrotizing enterocolitis in preterm newborns in the future, in order to lessen the associated complications and infant mortality.