Alternative Treatment Approaches to Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth: A Systematic Review.

Background: Broad-spectrum antibiotics are the first-line treatment for small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). However, many antibiotics have a considerable side-effect profile and SIBO commonly reoccurs after successful eradication with antibiotics. Alternative therapies such as probiotics, therapeutic diets, and herbal medicines have been used to individualize SIBO management, particularly in recalcitrant cases. Objectives: The objective of this review is to evaluate the role of alternative therapies in SIBO treatment. Data Sources: EMBASE, MEDLINE, and the Cochrane Central Register were systematically searched for clinical studies evaluating alternative therapies in the management of SIBO. Study Eligibility Criteria: Human studies in which an alternative intervention was used to treat SIBO were included. Alternative interventions were defined as an intervention that included a probiotic supplement, herbal preparation, or a dietary change. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), nonrandomized clinical trials with or without a control, and crossover studies were included. Study Appraisal: The following information was extracted from the selected studies: study type, study participants, SIBO subtype, intervention, comparison, outcome measures, relevant results, relevant side effects, and Jadad score. Results: Eight studies met inclusion criteria. The studies evaluated probiotics (n = 5), therapeutic diet (n = 1), and herbal medicines (n = 2). Among these studies, there were four RCTs, two open-label single-arm studies, one randomized, double-blind crossover study, and one two-arm open-label study with crossover. Main results are summarized. Limitations: There may be studies not captured by the defined search criteria. Additionally, studies used different methodologies in both breath testing and measurement of clinical symptoms, making it difficult to draw conclusions on SIBO eradication and symptom improvement across studies. Conclusions and Implications: Our findings suggest preliminary evidence for a role of alternative therapies in the treatment of SIBO. However, robust clinical trials are generally lacking. Existing studies tend to be small and lack standardized formulations of treatment. Breath testing protocols and clinical symptom measurement greatly varied between studies. Large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled trials are needed to further evaluate the best way to utilize alternative therapies in the treatment of SIBO.

[Association of thermal food processing methods and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth syndrome].

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a widespread disease which antibiotic therapy is not effective enough and the relapse rate is high. Microbiota is dependent on dietary pattern of the patient and specific nutrients, therefore the diversity of dietary patterns may be one of the major factor promoting SIBO or its relapses after treatment. The aim: to compare the patterns of thermal food processing methods in patients with and without SIBO. Material and methods. We performed retrospective single center database search to identify unique depersonalized records of patients with SIBO and the data of lactulose breath test and nutritional assessment with the use of 24-hours dietary recall. Inclusion criteria were complete data on patient's demography, adequate data of nutritional assessment and the lactulose breath test, absence of previous history of SIBO treatment in a special form of the database. In accordance with the results of lactulose breath test, patients were assigned into groups with the presence of SIBO with excess production of hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), both gases (CH4-H2) or without SIBO (control group). According to the data of 24 h dietary recall, we divided all dishes and products consumed by a patient to 6 categories (Cat) depending on thermal food processing method: those that were not processed (raw) (Cat-r), boiled (Cat-bl), fried (Cat-f), stewed (Cat-s), baked in the oven (Cat-bk) or grilled (Cat-g). To analyze the structure of thermal food processing, we divided the weight of all products or dishes that underwent specific method of processing to the total weight of the food eaten. We did not take into the account the weight of thermally stable components like water and salt. The pattern of thermal food processing within each patients group was obtained as a quotient of the total percentage (by weight) of the food processed with the certain method by the number of patients in the group. Results and discussion. The data of 1108 patients were available for the final analysis: 602 patients in the SIBO-H2 group, 140 in the SIBO-CH4 group, 248 in the SIBO-CH4-H2 group, and 118 patients in the control group. The distribution of thermal food processing categories was in patients with SIBO-H2 as follows: Cat-r - 45.8±17.3%, Cat-bl - 31.9±15.7%, Cat-s - 3.5±7.7%, Cat-f - 6.3±10.4%, Cat-bk - 12.2±10.2%, Cat-g - 0.3±3.3%); in patients with SIBO-CH4: Cat-r - 47.9±17.4%, Cat-bl - 29.6±15.6%, Cat-s - 4.4±7.6%, Cat-f - 5.8±9.8%, Cat-bk - 12.3±10.4%, Cat-g - 0,2±2,7%; in patients with SIBO-CH4-H2: Cat-r - 45.6±16.3%, Catbl - 31.5±16.2%, Cat-s - 4.0±8.0%, Cat-f - 5.1±9.3%, Cat-bk - 13.4±10.8%, Cat-g - 0.4±2.3%. Similar results were obtained in the control group (Cat-r - 44.7±17.0%, Cat-bl - 32.6±16.5%, Cat-s - 2.7±6.0%, Cat-f - 5.5±8.0%, Cat-bk - 14.2±10.6%, Cat-g - 0.3±2.0%). There were no significant differences between the SIBO and control groups by mean percentage of raw, boiled, stewed, fried, baked and grilled food intake. Conclusion. We found no association between thermal food processing patterns and SIBO. It seems that thermal food processing patterns has no influence on SIBO and its variants.

Home parenteral nutrition in patients with systemic sclerosis: a retrospective review of 12 cases.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of home total parenteral nutrition (HTPN) on the nutritional and functional status of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). METHODS: Retrospective review of SSc patients from the HTPN database at the University Health Network, Toronto, Canada, from 1998 to 2010. RESULTS: In total 12 subjects (9 females, 3 males) with SSc were identified. At initiation of HTPN, the age was 48.75 ± 3.94 years and the median body mass index was 16.8 kg/m(2) (range 12.3-21.3). This significantly increased to 18.3 kg/m(2) (17.0-21.7) at 6 months and to 19.7 kg/m(2) (17.0-24.6) at 12 months. The mean Karnofsky score at baseline was 58.00 ± 3.27, and the score at 12 months of 39.00 ± 13.29 did not change significantly. CONCLUSION: HTPN improved the nutritional status of these patients with SSc but it did not improve their functional status.