Efficacy and safety of probiotics in eradicating Helicobacter pylori: A network meta-analysis

Due to decreasing eradication rate and increasing side effects, probiotics have gradually become an important supplement to standard eradication regimens for Helicobacter pylori.

To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of probiotics in facilitating the eradication of H pylori and to explore the best timing and duration of probiotic supplementation, use of eradication regimens, strains, locations, and common side effects.

Eligible studies were retrieved from the PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and CNKI databases, and we applied the Stata 12.0 software for the standard meta-analysis and network meta-analysis.

Forty eligible studies with 8924 patients were included in the analysis. We used a random-effects model (I = 52.1% and I = 81.4%) to analyze the eradication rate and the incidence of total side effects by intention to treat (ITT). Compared with the control group, a higher eradication rate (relative risk [RR] 1.140, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.101-1.180, P < .001) and lower incidence of total side effects (RR 0.470, 95% CI 0.391-0.565, P < .001) were observed in the probiotic group. In the subgroup analysis, we evaluated the surface under the cumulative ranking curve scores for the before + same (75.2%), >2 weeks (92.6%), probiotic + quadruple regimen (99.9%), Lactobacillus (73.6%), multiple strains (72.1%), China (98.5%) groups. The rankings of common side effects are shown in Table 6. SUCRA scores for diarrhea (39.7%), abdominal pain (43.9%), nausea (78.8%), taste disturbance (99.6%), vomiting (7.1%), and constipation (30.9%) were reported. The consistency of all comparison groups was good.

Probiotics improved the eradication rate and reduced side effects when added to the treatments designed to eradicate H pylori. The use of probiotics before the eradication treatment and throughout the eradication treatment, and also the use of probiotics for more than 2 weeks, exerted better eradication effects. Probiotics combined with the bismuth quadruple regimen was the best combination. Lactobacillus and multiple strains were better choices of probiotic strains. The eradication effect observed in China was better than the effect observed in other countries.