Pharmacy Notes

Probiotic Use for the Prevention of Antibiotic- Associated Clostridium difficile Infection

Fed Pract. 2019 June;36(6):257-261

Author(s):

References

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Clostridium difficile (C difficile) is a gram-positive, toxin-producing bacterium that is of increasing concern among health care providers and patients. Infection with C difficile can have manifestations ranging from mild diarrhea to severe toxic megacolon and can result in prolonged hospitalization with severe cases requiring admission to an intensive care unit.¹ In 2014, the US was estimated to have more than 600,000 cases of C difficile infection (CDI), previously known as C difficile–associated diarrhea, and more than 44,000 associated deaths. The annual economic cost of CDI is thought to exceed $5 billion.¹ According to studies of health care–associated illness, CDI rates are comparable to or have surpassed rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection within the US, including at US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) acute care centers nationwide.^2,3

C difficile has been shown to be the causative agent in 10% to 20% of antibiotic-associated diarrhea episodes.⁴ Colonization of C difficile is uncommon in healthy adults, but colonization rates are as high as 21% in hospitalized patients, with increasing rates proportional to increasing hospital length of stay.^5,6 Although not all colonized patients develop clinically significant CDI, those who do may require multiple treatment courses, over months to years, because of the high risk of disease recurrence. An estimated 25% of patients have a single recurrent episode of CDI within 30 days after treatment completion, and 45% of those patients have additional recurrent infections.^7,8 Although probiotics do not have an approved US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indication, these supplements are often used to try to prevent CDI from developing during concomitant antibiotic use. Probiotics are microorganisms with potential health benefits, but the mechanisms of these benefits are not fully understood. Proposed mechanisms include reduced growth of pathogenic bacteria, modulation of the immune system, and support of the intestinal wall barrier.⁹ The many probiotic formulations currently marketed include Lactobacillus acidophilus (L acidophilus) capsules and various combinations of L acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifidobacterium lactis, Bifidobacterium longum, Streptococcus thermophilus, and other bacterial strains.

Dosing and Guidelines

Manufacturers’ suggested dosing for their Lactobacillus capsules, tablets, and packets varies from 1 unit daily to 4 units 4 times daily for dietary supplementation; the products’ labeling does not include any information regarding treatment duration.^10-13In addition, there are no published recommendations or product labeling guiding the dosing of probiotics or their duration of use in the primary prevention of CDI.

In 2017, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) updated their CDI treatment guidelines.¹⁴ As these guidelines indicate that the data on probiotic use in CDI are inadequate, IDSA and SHEA make no recommendation for or against probiotic use in primary prevention of the disease. The guidelines point to several limitations in the literature, including variability in probiotic formulations studied, duration of probiotic administration, definitions of CDI, and duration of study follow-up.

Given the lack of consensus guidelines that clinicians can use when deciding which probiotic dosing and duration are appropriate for a patient for primary prevention of CDI, we evaluated the literature on the topic and summarize their findings here.