Moeen Ul Haq
Gomal Medical College, Pakistan
Title: A double blind randomized clinical trail: Role of Lactobacillus plantarum 299v versus Placebo in symptomatic improvement of irritable bowel syndrome patients
Biography
Biography: Moeen Ul Haq
Abstract
The Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the most common functional gastrointestinal disorders. It was proposed that small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of IBS. So this altered intestinal microbial flora in patients with IBS suggests that the best treatment strategy will be to target this altered flora. Recently, the deleterious role of qualitative or quantitative alterations of gut microbiota at the onset of symptoms has been emphasized. Methodology: In this RCT, the study population was recruited by using Room III criteria of IBS. After taking informed consent from all the participants they were randomized into either of two groups to receive the study drug or placebo for duration of 4 weeks. After the baseline assessment there were a total of three assessments of each participant. At each assessment two things were noted improvement in the IBS symptoms and the compliance of the drugs. Results: A total of the 120 patients having IBS were enrolled in the study, 60 in each group, the number of drop outs in L.Plantarum group were 5 while in the placebo group were 7. At the end of study the L.Plantarum was found to have effect no better than placebo on the abdominal pain frequency (2.7 vs 3.4 p=0.21). After 4 weeks of therapy the severity of abdominal pain has no significant difference in L.Plantarum vs placebo group (5.54 vs 6.69 p=0.15) as compared to the baseline (8.71 vs 7.84 ). Similarly in the severity of bloating (4.13 vs 3.98 p = 0.34) and the feeling of incomplete rectal emptying (1.21 vs 0.98 p=0.19) the difference in the both the groups was not significant. Conclusion: This RCT failed to show any significant improvement in the IBS symptoms by the use of L.Plantarum when compared with the placebo.