Clinical efficacy of probiotics on feeding intolerance in preterm infants: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: The physiological organ system of premature infants is still very immature, so it is easy to result feeding intolerance. Therefore, effective probiotic supplementation plays a very important role and clinical research significance in promoting the growth and development of preterm infants, improving the quality of life and improving the occurrence of feeding intolerance. To explore the clinical effect of probiotics on feeding intolerance (FI) in preterm infants by meta-analysis. Methods: The PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE and MEDLINE literature databases were searched for relevant literature. The literature related to the clinical effect of probiotics on FI in preterm infants was published from January 2002 to January 2021. RevMan 5.3 was used to calculate the reinforcement mean difference (MD) and evaluate the publication bias. Results: Nine articles were included, involving a total of 1,244 preterm infants with FI. Through the sensitivity analysis of each excluded study, the results showed no significant differences. Compared with patients in the control group, the probiotics group had significant improvements (P<0.1) in the total intestinal feeding time (MD =-2.54, 95% CI: -3.57, -1.52, P<0.00001), weight gain (MD =23.81, 95% CI: 19.75, 27.81, P<0.00001), maximum enteral feeding (MD =6.41, 95% CI: 1.94, 10.88, P=0.005), hospital stay (MD =-5.18, 95% CI: -5.63, -4.74, P<0.00001), incidence of FI [odds rate (OR) =0.38, 95% CI: 0.27, 0.55, P<0.00001] and improvement in the gastrointestinal tract (OR =2.34, 95% CI: 1.07, 5.14, P=0.03). Discussion: Our study shows that the use of probiotics can promote the early growth of preterm infants and effectively improve the occurrence of FI in preterm infants.