Abstract

Objectives: To investigate the effectiveness of supplementary probiotics in initial cure rate of Bacterial Vaginosis (BV) after vaginal clindamycin therapy and their role in delaying recurrence of BV. Materials & Methods: This comparative study, conducted between July 2011 to June 2012 among the married, non-pregnant patients of child bearing age from middle class society with bacterial vaginosis diagnosed by Amsel criteria. Fifty patients each in study and control group were included. Oral probiotics (containing 109Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1, 109Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14) twice daily for one month to the study and placebo to the control groups were given after vaginal clindamycin therapy. Patients were followed up at one, three and six months by Nugent scoring. Results: After 1 month, 88% in study group and 86% patients in control group had normal flora (p 0.965). After 3 months 94% and 46% patients in the study and control groups respectively had normal vaginal flora (p 0.001). At six months 98% patients in the study group still had BV free vaginal flora in compare to 22% of control group (p 0.0003). Conclusion: Supplementary probiotics does not improve the efficacy of BV therapy initially but they definitely help to prolong relapse of bacterial vaginosis. .