RESUMO
Objective To explore the effects of probiotics on intestinal function, nutritional status and inflammatory response in critically ill patients with enteral nutrition (EN) support. Methods A total of 90 critically ill patients admitted to Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from July 2016 to November 2018 were enrolled, and they were divided into a probiotics combined with EN group (27 cases) and an simple EN group (63 cases) according to random number table method. The patients in the simple EN group were treated with conventional nutrient preparations such as fresubin or fresubin energy fibre; the patients in probiotics combined with EN group were supplemented with probiotics on the basis of conventional EN support for consecutive 7 days in both groups. The changes of gastrointestinal function, nutritional index and inflammatory response index after treatment were observed in both groups. Results After treatment, the subjective global assessment (SGA) method was used to identify the gradation of the patients, it was shown that the proportion of SGA-B grade patients in simple EN group had an upward trend; while the proportion of SGA-B grade patients in probiotics combined with EN group had no significant change; and there was no significant difference in the proportion of SGA-B patients between simple EN group and probiotics combined with EN group after treatment [20.6% (13/63) vs. 7.4% (2/27),P > 0.05]. Compared with those before treatment, the levels of hemoglobin (Hb), white blood cell count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukins (IL-6, IL-12) in both groups were significantly decreased, while the levels of albumin (Alb), pre-albumin (PA), total lymphocyte count (TLC) in both groups were increased after treatment, and the changes of Hb, TNF-α, IL-6 in probiotics combined with EN group were more significant than those in the simple EN group [Hb (g/L): 95.0 (78.0, 107.0) vs. 93.0 (80.0, 107.0), TNF-α (pg/L): 21.2±4.0 vs. 28.0±5.7, IL-6 (pg/L): 161.3±37.6 vs. 186.2±51.8];the differences in levels of Hb, CRP, TNF-α before and after treatment between the probiotics combined with EN group and simple EN group were statistically significant [Hb (g/L): 1.0 (-4.0, 12.0) vs. 11.0 (1.0, 20.0), CRP (mg/L): 44.3 (13.7, 57.7) vs. 7.5 (-20.1, 62.4), TNF-α (pg/L): 13.3±6.3 vs. 7.9±5.5, all P < 0.05]. There were no statistical significant differences in the other indicators between the two groups (all P > 0.05). Conclusion Probiotics can improve the gastrointestinal function and inflammatory status of critically ill patients with EN support, regretfully, in a short term, the improvement of nutritional status of such patients is not obvious, but probiotics has certain significance in preventing the risk of aggravation of malnutrition and reduction of Hb level.