The Journal of hospital infection
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Review Meta Analysis
Probiotics and synbiotics for the prevention of postoperative infections following abdominal surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Postoperative infections, particularly surgical site infections (SSIs), cause significant morbidity and mortality. Probiotics or synbiotics are a potential prevention strategy. ⋯ Our review suggests that probiotics/synbiotics reduce SSIs and UTIs from abdominal surgeries compared to placebo or standard of care, without evidence of safety risk. Overall study quality was low, owing mostly to imprecision (few patients and events, or wide CIs); thus larger multi-centered trials are needed to further assess the certainty in this estimate.