Prevention of Gastric Colonisation by Antibiotic Resistant Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Strains Using Oral Probiotic in ICU-Patients

In this prospective double-blind randomised study, ICU patients receive twice a day either an oral dose of Lactobacillus casei rhamnosus, the available pharmaceutical form, or a placebo. Digestive tract carriage of Pseudomonas aeruginosa is monitored by cultures of gastric aspirates. The occurrence of respiratory tract colonisations / infections is monitored throughout the study. Evaluation criteria are the delay and the rates of gastric P. aeruginosa colonisation and respiratory tract infection or colonisation. Chi-square or two tailed Fisher exact test are used for comparing qualitative variables and Student's t-test or mann-Whitney test for quantitatives variables. The mean of non-acquisition expectancy (NAE), length of stay without P. aeruginosa acquisition, was calculated and P. aeruginosa non-colonized patient rates were estimated and the two groups compared with regard to survival curves from grouped data using the Kaplan Meier method and the Logrank test. Variables with a P. value ≤0.15 in the univariate analysis were included in a logistic regression and a Cox regression model for multivariate analysis.