A new University of California Los Angeles Health study found that taking an 8-strain probiotic daily may reduce the risk of pouchitis, a common inflammatory condition that occurs after colon removal surgery for ulcerative colitis, but the treatment may not be worth the cost depending on a patient’s likelihood of flare-ups.
The study, published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances, is the first to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the probiotic treatment, which was shown in previous studies to be effective at preventing the initial onset of and the reoccurrence of pouchitis. The UCLA study affirmed that the probiotic formulation was effective at preventing pouchitis compared to patients taking no probiotics but found that the cost to third-party payers may outweigh those benefits in most cases unless the cost of the probiotic formulation is lowered.