ReviewERJ open research2021
Do probiotics help prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients? A systematic review with meta-analysis.
Review in ERJ open research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Role of probiotic supplementation in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia among critically ill patients-a critical umbrella review of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia with probiotics: an overview of systematic reviews.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Pooled it
- Probiotic in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients: evidence from meta-analysis and trial sequential analysis of randomized clinical trials.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Probiotic Supplementation Prevents the Development of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia for Mechanically Ventilated ICU Patients: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Pooled it
- Clinical Benefits From Administering Probiotics to Mechanical Ventilated Patients in Intensive Care Unit: A PRISMA-Guided Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2021Pooled it
- Gut dysbiosis, metabolic signals, and pulmonary immune reprogramming: decoding the gut microbiota -immune axis in stroke-associated pneumonia.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- The Interplay Between Nutrition and Microbiota and the Role of Probiotics and Symbiotics in Pediatric Infectious Diseases.Nutrients · 2025Review
- Advancements in alternative approaches to address antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pneumonia: a comprehensive review.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Review
- Computational prediction of new therapeutic effects of probiotics.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Clinical efficacy of probiotics in prevention of infectious diseases among hospitalized patients in ICU and non-ICU wards in clinical randomized trials: A systematic review.Health science reports · 2023Article
- Gut Microbiome in Sepsis.Surgical infections · 2023Review
- Respiratory and Intestinal Microbiota in Pediatric Lung Diseases-Current Evidence of the Gut-Lung Axis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Strategies to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia, ventilator-associated events, and nonventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia in acute-care hospitals: 2022 Update.Infection control and hospital epidemiology · 2022Article
- Management of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia: Quality Assessment of Clinical Practice Guidelines and Variations in Recommendations on Drug Therapy for Prevention and Treatment.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Article
- Mucus, Microbiomes and Pulmonary Disease.Biomedicines · 2021Review
- The Role of Dysbiosis in Critically Ill Patients With COVID-19 and Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProbiotic treatments might contribute to the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Due to its unclear clinical effects, here we intend to assess the preventive effect and safety of probiotics on intensive care unit (ICU) patients.
methodsEligible randomised controlled trials were selected in databases until 30 September 2019. The characteristics of the studies were extracted, including study design, definition of VAP, probiotics intervention, category of included patients, incidence of VAP, mortality, duration of mechanical ventilation (MV) and ICU stay. Heterogeneity was evaluated by Chi-squared and I
results15 studies involving 2039 patients were identified for analysis. The pooled analysis suggests significant reduction on VAP (risk ratio, 0.68; 95% Cl, 0.60 to 0.77; p<0.00001) in a fixed-effects model. Subgroup analyses performed on the category of clinical and microbiological criteria both support the above conclusion; however, there were no significant differences in duration of MV or length of ICU stay in a random-effects model. Also, no significant differences in total mortality, overall mortality, 28-day mortality or 90-day mortality were found in the fixed-effects model.
conclusionsThe probiotics helped to prevent VAP without impacting the duration of MV, length of ICU stay or mortality.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.