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Effects of probiotics for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis in adult women: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

  • General Gynecology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to evaluate the evidence for probiotic use in the treatment of bacterial vaginosis (BV) in adult women.

Methods

The Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINAHL and EMBASE databases were searched to identify the relevant randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of probiotics for the treatment of BV. Two independent authors used an Excel file to extract data and assessed trial quality. The primary outcome measure was the cure rate of BV. The meta-analysis was performed with the fixed-effects model or random-effects model according to heterogeneity.

Results

A total of 1,304 patients from 12 trials were subjected to meta-analysis. The pooled result showed that probiotics supplementation can significantly improve the cure rate in adult BV patients [risk ratio (RR) 1.53; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.19–1.97]. Findings were slightly different when analyses were restricted to nine high-quality studies (RR 1.60; 95 % CI 1.16–2.22). In a subgroup meta-analysis, a statistically significant beneficial effect of probiotics was observed in Europe populations and short-term follow-up days.

Conclusion

Compared with the control arm, the limited evidence suggests that probiotics show a beneficial effect in patients who are suffering from BV. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously because of the heterogeneity among study designs. Further large-scale, well-designed RCTs on this topic are urgently needed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank everyone who helped with this study. This work was supported by Grants No. 81173636 from the National Natural Science Foundation.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work, there is no professional or other personal interest of any nature or kind in any product, service and/or company that could be construed as influencing the position presented in, or the review of, the manuscript entitled “Effects of probiotics for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis in adult women: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials”. All authors have no conflicts of interest.

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  1. School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Medical College, No. 1, Xincheng Road of Songshan Lake Science and Technology Industry Park, Dongguan, 523808, Guangdong, China

    Haohai Huang, Lijun Song & Wenchang Zhao

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  1. Haohai Huang
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  2. Lijun Song
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Correspondence to Wenchang Zhao.

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Huang, H., Song, L. & Zhao, W. Effects of probiotics for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis in adult women: a meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials. Arch Gynecol Obstet 289, 1225–1234 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-013-3117-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-013-3117-0

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