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Researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and The Burn Unit and the Skin Bank of Soroka University Medical Center studied the effects of probiotic supplementation on 28 patients with second and third degree burns on less than 70 per cent of their body.
"Our findings suggest that in acute burns, lactobacillus bacteria food additives may be clinically beneficial in patients with a total burned body surface area of 41 to 70 per cent," wrote lead author Lior Koren in the journal Burns.
"It is our impression that lactobacillus bacteria supplement may become an addition to the routine regimen for reducing sepsis and mortality in acute extensively burned patients," added Koren.
Probiotic products containing 'friendly' bacteria are now well accepted by consumers in many European countries, with putative benefits highlighted for gut and immune health.
The retrospective cohort study recruited 56 burns patients and half were given placebo and half were given lactobacillus supplements - 25 patients received capsules containing Lactobacillus acidophilus (Solgar Company) and three received "Actimel" yogurt containing Lactobacillus casei.
At the end of the study, the researchers report that, while no significant difference was observed in mortality with respect to all the participants, among those with burns covering between 41 and 70 per cent of the total body surface a significant benefit of probiotic supplementation was observed.
In that subgroup, none of the patients died, compared to five patients in the corresponding control group.
Despite these promising results, the researchers stress that more studies, particularly comprehensive, prospective, controlled, and blinded studies were needed add clarity to the issue.
"Our research was a retrospective cohort study," stated the researchers. "Due to nature of the study, the lactobacillus bacteria supplement was not given in ideal conditions. The lactobacillus bacteria were given in two ways and the supplement was given, on average, 8.25 days after the injury and thus covering only the stress phases that followed that period. These constraints may have reduced the gains of the supplement."
Most foods containing probiotic bacteria are found in the refrigerated section of supermarkets as the bacteria is destroyed by heat and other processing conditions.
This has given the dairy sector, already used to handling live bacteria for the manufacture of yoghurt, a major advantage in probiotic foods - probiotic drinking yoghurts are currently the fastest growing dairy product in Europe.
But increasing research has focused on expanding protecting probiotics during processing and expanding the food categories available to prebiotics. Such an avenue of research has led companies like Cell Biotech from Korea using a dual-coating to protect probiotics against oxygen, acid, moisture and high temperatures for use in emerging new product categories such as breakfast cereals and smoothies.
Other approaches are also being explored, with scientists looking at improving probiotic viability by using whey protein gel particles, or prebiotic fibres.
Source: Burns (Elsevier)
August 2007, Volume 33, Issue 5, Pages 594-598, doi:10.1016/j.burns.2006.09.007
"The effect of Lactobacillus bacteria supplement on sepsis and its complications in patients with acute burns"
Authors: L. Koren, R. Gurfinkel, R. Glezinger, Z.H. Perry, S. Lev-Ari and L. Rosenberg
