Clinical Follow-up of 96 Patients Affected by Irritable Bowel Syndrome Treated with a Novel Multi-strain Symbiotic

Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very common chronic functional disorder of the lower gastrointestinal tract. It tipically includes chronic and/or recurrent abdominal pain/discomfort, which can be relieved by defecation, and alteration of stool form or frequency. Probiotics have been proposed as a therapeutic approach in several pathologic conditions of the gastrointestinal tract associated with dysbiosis, including IBS. In this observational study we investigated the efficacy of a symbiotic formulation (SynGut TM ), composed of four probiotic strains and the prebiotic inulin, in the treatment of adult subjects affected by IBS. Seventy-one out of 96 patients reported an improvement of IBS symptoms, 19 of them reporting a substantial improvement. Two patients discontinued the treatment after a few days because of worsening of symptoms, but no serious adverse effects were reported. In the subgroup of patients (n = 18) who underwent faecal calprotectin dosage, this marker of gut inflammation was significantly decreased (127,3 vs 78,6, p < 0,0001) after two months of treatment respect to baseline. Our data confirm that this multi-strain symbiotic is well tolerated, and support the hypothesis that this symbiotic could improve IBS symptoms.