A study published in 2008 has affirmed that in preterm newborns the use of probiotics is capable to prevent the development of a disease, which is unfortunately widespread and severe, necrotizing enterocolitis. With a meta-analysis of 11 randomized trials involving 2176 preterm newborns (birth weight lower than 1500 g), some researchers have now verified that the newborns treated with probiotics are significantly less affected by necrotizing enterocolitis (RR 0-35; NNT 25) and present an overall mortality lower than the non-treated ones (RR 0.42; NNT 20). The use of probiotics is not associated with an increase in other infections.
The meta-analysis confirms the usefulness of probiotics, even if it is not clear yet whether the use of these products is to enter the usual practice. Examining the meta-analysis with criticism, we neither know, for example, with which probiotic and at which dosage positive effects appear, nor whether its efficacy is conditioned, in some ways, by breastfeeding or by bottle feeding. No doubt, given their inexistent dangerousness, probiotics in these particular situations must be seriously taken into consideration.
