News - Bacterial Overgrowth Eradication Can Improve Irritable Bowel

January 16, 2001

Bacterial Overgrowth Eradication Can Improve Irritable Bowel

American Journal of Gastroenterology

01/16/2001

By Elda Hauschildt

Eradicating small intestinal bacterial overgrowth could eliminate irritable

bowel syndrome symptoms in as many as 48 percent of patients.

Bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine is associated with irritable bowel

syndrome (IBS), researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles

note.

They point out that IBS is the most common gastrointestinal diagnosis and its

symptoms are similar to those of bacterial overgrowth.

Investigators tested whether treating overgrowth reduces intestinal complaints

in IBS patients. They studied 202 people who met Rome I criteria for IBS. All

had been referred from the community for lactulose hydrogen breath tests needed

to assess bacterial overgrowth in the small intestine.

Participants were blinded to their breath-test results until after they

completed a questionnaire.

Patients with positive breath tests were treated with open label antibiotics.

They were then re-assessed to confirm eradication of overgrowth symptoms.

Any participants with inflammatory bowel disease, who had previously had

abdominal surgery or who demonstrated rapid-transit symptoms were excluded.

Investigators then rated participants' baseline and post-treatment symptoms.

These included bloating, diarrhea, abdominal pain, defecation relief, mucous,

sensation of incomplete evacuation, straining and urgency.

A total of 157 of the IBS patients (78 percent) were found to have bacterial

overgrowth. Of these, 47 had follow-up testing, with 25 demonstrating

eradication of the overgrowth.

Of patients with eradicated overgrowth, 48 percent no longer met Rome criteria

for IBS.

" No differences were seen if eradication was not successful, " investigators

note.

American Journal of Gastroenterology, 2000; 95: 3503-3506

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