use of probiotic for the treatment of acute rotavirus diarrhea in children: a randomized single-blind controlled trial

background and objective: despite consistent evidence that probiotics reduce the duration of diarrhea, there is only weak evidence for their efficacy in reducing the duration of hospitalization. another source of heteroge-neity for probiotic trials is the type of probiotic being assessed; also, information about combined products is scarce. methods: this is a randomized, single-blind controlled clinical trial performed in children hospitalized with acute rotavirus diarrhea carried out at a university hospital in tehran, iran. children were randomly assigned to receive rehydration therapy or the same plus a multi-strain probiotic preparation. the primary outcome was the duration of hospitalization.. findings: a total of 60 patients with acute diarrhea secondary to rotavirus infection were included; baseline characteristics were similar in both groups. a statistically significant difference in the duration of hospitalization was observed (p <0.001) in children receiving probiotic (5.07 ± 1.30) in comparison to the control group (8.22 ± 2.14). conclusion: results of this study support the use of multi-strain preparation probiotics in treating rotavirus acute diarrhea.