Synbiotic supplementation promotes improvement of chronic diarrhea of unknown etiology in patient with chronic kidney disease and provides better outcomes in dialysis

BACKGROUND Chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients often have gastrointestinal symptoms which may result in malnutrition and a negative impact on their quality of life. Modulation of the gut microbiota can be a strategy to promote host health and homeostasis. CASE REPORT The authors present a case of chronic diarrhea in a hemodialysis (HD) patient with an unknown etiology. After about one year and several failed interventions, synbiotic therapy was performed. The diarrhea episodes ceased after three months of daily supplementation and both biochemical and nutritional parameters improved. Synbyotic therapy promoted clinical benefits in this patient. DISCUSSION Therefore, this simple therapy may be a promising alternative in CKD and it should be tested in larger studies.