Acute diarrhea in young children is a major problem in pediatric hospitals worldwide. We evaluated the clinical efficacy of orally administered Lactobacillus acidophilus in the treatment of acute diarrhea in children.

From September 2002 to July 2003 at National Police Hospital 41 children aged 3 months to 5 years with acute diarrhea were enrolled in this study. The patients were randomized to one of two groups to receive either 0.5 × 10⁸ colony forming unit (CFU) of L. acidophilus or matching placebo on admission and every 8 hours during hospitalization.

The mean duration of diarrhea in all 41 children was decreased (p=0.001) in the L. acidophilus (40.5 hours) group compared to the placebo (56.6 hours) group. Stool frequency was also reduced (p=0.01) on the 3rd day in the L. acidophilus group. Rotavirus was identified in 58% of the patients. The decrease of duration of diarrhea was more significant in rotavirus-negative patients (p=0.002) compared to the rotavirus-positive patients (p=0.027).

L. acidophilus shows to be an effective therapeutic agent in acute diarrhea in children. Further studies are needed to confirm the present findings.