Probiotics combined with aminosalicylic acid affiliates remission of ulcerative colitis: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trial

We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of probiotic combined with aminosalicylic on induction remission maintenance treatment of ulcerative colitis. We conducted systematic searches in several Chinses and English databases from inception to June 2018, screening randomized controlled trial about effect of probiotics combined with aminosalicylic acid on ulcerative colitis. The evaluation indicator was the rate of remission. The relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. A total of twenty-seven studies with 1942 patients were included. The results indicated that the remission rate was significantly higher in the group using probiotics combined with aminosalicylic acid than that in the group using aminosalicylic acid alone (RR=1.40, 95%CI: 1.27-1.53, P =0.000). The subgroup analysis indicated that probiotics combined with aminosalicylic acid can significantly elevate the remission rate in both mild to moderate (RR=1.33, 95%CI: 1.16-1.54, P =0.000) and active stage (RR=1.40, 95%CI: 1.27-1.64, P =0.000) ulcerative colitis. In different number of bacterium, drug types, treatment period, the combination with probiotics can significantly increase the remission rate ulcerative colitis. The funnel plot shown slight publication bias. Probiotics in conjunction with aminosalicylic can obviously increase the clinical remission rate of activity ulcerative colitis than drug alone. There was no significant difference between combined with mesalazine and salicylazosulfapyridine.