Table 4.

A summary of four included prebiotic studies

	Boehm 2002 [[36]	Indrio 2009 [[43]	Kapiki 2007 [[45]	Mihatsch 2006 [[44]
Location of study	Milan, Italy	University of Bari, Policinico, Italy	Athens, Greece	Ulm University, Germany
Participants - entry criteria	<32 weeks gestation	Healthy preterm newborns	≤ 36 weeks gestation	< 1500 g birth weight
Number of study participants	Study group = 15, Placebo = 15	Study group = 10 , Placebo = 10	Study group = 36, Placebo = 20	Study group = 10, Placebo = 10
Prebiotic used	GOS 90%, FOS 10%	scGOS, lcFOS at ratio 9:1	FOS	GOS, FOS
Dose of prebiotic	1g/dl	0.8 g/dl	0.4g/100ml	1g/dl
Placebo	Maltodextrin	Maltodextrin	Maltodextrin	Maltodextrin
Dose of placebo	1 g/dl	0.8 g/dl	0.4 g	1.8 / 90 ml
Treatment initiation	When enteral feed ≥ 80 mls /kg/day was tolerated	Not clear	Exclusively formula fed at start of study	At full enteral feed at start of study
Treatment duration	28 days	15 days	14 days	15 days
Reported Outcomes
Growth parameters	Weight gain, linear growth	Weight gain, linear growth, head growth	Weight gain, linear growth, head growth	Weight gain
Timing and duration of measurement of growth parameters	Measured on days 1, 7, 14, 28	Measured before start of study, days 3, 5, 15	Measured on days 1, 7, 14	Weight gain: reported as “Average weight gain during study.”
Feed tolerance	Number of days to full enteral feed, maximal enteral feed	Number of days to full enteral feed, maximal enteral feed	Number of days to full enteral feed	Number of days to full enteral feed, maximal enteral feed
Stool characteristics	Stooling frequency, consistency		Stooling frequency, consistency	Stool viscosity, Stooling frequency, consistency
Changes in gastrointestinal microflora	cfu bifidobacteria		cfu bifidobacteria, pathogens