The Effects of Probiotics on Prevention of Nosocomial Pneumonia

Nosocomial pneumonia is a major cause of mortality in critically ill patients in hospital that has a prevalence of 5-10 cases per 1000 admissions. Probiotics are live microorganisms that colonize oropharynx and digestive tract of the host and inhibit the natural flora from pathogenic flora. Therefore, their impact on the prevention of nosocomial pneumonia has been proposed. The purpose of this study was to review literatures about the effect of probiotics on the incidence of nosocomial pneumonia. Search for related studies on this was performed in two steps. In the first step PubMed, Scopus and Google scholar were searched with key words of pneumonia and probiotics and related studies were extracted. In the second stage related articles references were investigated and then the RCT studies between 2008 and 2014 were assessed.In this review 8 studies on the effect of probiotics in the prevention of nosocomial pneumonia were found that only 2 studies showed significant reduction in the development of ventilator associated pneumonia.Assessment of the effect of probiotics in nosocomial pneumonia needed further studies that should consider probiotics′ type, dosage, duration and rout of prescription.