Abstract
Lactobacilli in the intestines play an important role in developing natural defenses against both intestinal bacterial and vira1 infections. So a prospective clinica1 study was carried out at Cathay General Hospital to determine the effect of Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium infantis on the course of acute diarrhea in hospitalized children.

Altogether 100 children between 6 and 60 months of age were collected and randomly allocated into 2 groups. Study group (n=50) was given infloran Berna, which contains 10⁹ viable Lactobacillus acidophilus and 10⁹ Bifidobacterium infantis, one capsule tid for 4 days and control group (n=50) received parenteral rehydration only without any medication. Only 20 stool cultures in study group had positive culture results for Lactobacillus or Bifdobacterium. All children were evaluated for the degree of dehydration before rehydration. The clinical course of diarrhea was followed during the treatment period. Features on admission were similar between the study group and control group in age, duration of diarrhea at home, serum sodium & potassium and dehydration degree. The duration of diarrhea was defined as the time until the last appearance of watery stool. There was no difference between the study group and control group in the frequency of diarrhea stools on the day before admission ( p > 0.05 ). However, the frequency of diarrhea for study group improved on the first and second day of hospita lìzation with statistical difference ( p < 0.01). The duration of diarrhea during hospitalization in study group also decreased (3 .1 vs. 3.6 days, p < 0.01). Oral bacterial therapy is an effective adjuvant therapy in rotavirus positive and negative children with diarrhea and can safely be administered during an episode of acute diarrhea. (Acta Paediatr Tw 2001; 42 :301-5)

口服活菌療法促進兒童急性腹瀉之康復

李明哲 林隆煌 洪混隆 吳雪穎

摘要：

乳酸菌(Lactobacilli) 在腸內可幫助人體 對抗細菌及病毒的傳染。因此本文主探討嗜酸性 乳酸菌(Lactobacil1us acidophilus) 及比菲德氏菌(Bifidobacterium infantis) 對於住院病童之急性腹瀉是否有效果。

本文共收集100名 6 個月到60個月大的急性腹瀉病童，隨意分為2 組(各50名) 。實驗組病童每天服用三顆活菌膠囊，內含嗜酸性乳酸菌及比菲德氏菌各10⁹隻活菌。對照組只接受點滴注射而不服用任何藥物。 其中實驗組僅有20名病童可從糞便中培養出所用的兩種活菌。實驗組與對照組無論在年齡、住院前腹瀉時間長短、血納、血鉀及脫水程度均相類似。旦實驗組與對照組在住院前一天的腹瀉頻率亦沒有統計上的差異。但在第一天及第二天住院腹瀉頻率上，實驗組有得到明顯統計上的改善。

此外，在住院期間的腹瀉天數長短方面亦有縮短 (3.1 天與3.6天)。因此，口服活菌療法在兒童之急性腹瀉是一可能有效且安全的輔助療法。