Uso de probióticos na prevenção e tratamento de vulvovaginites: revisão de escopo

Abstract

The objective of this research is to map evidence in the literature on the use of probiotics for the prevention and treatment of vulvovaginitis. This is a scoping review carried out in 2023. The Population, Concept and Context (PCC) strategy was used to formulate the following guiding question: What evidence is found in the world literature on the use of probiotics in treatment and/or or prevention of vulvovaginitis in women? The strategy used for the search was: Vaginitis OR “Candidiasis, Vulvovaginal” OR “Vaginosis, Bacterial” OR “Trichomonas Vaginitis” AND Probiotics. The databases used were PUBMED, EMBASE and LILACS. After searching the databases, the findings were sorted. At the end, the following information was extracted from the references: Authorship, year of publications, location, age range of the population, type of vulvovaginitis, probiotics evaluated and main findings relevant to the objective of this review. Data tabulation was performed using the Microsoft Excel tool. Data synthesis occurred through descriptive analysis, where absolute and relative frequencies were calculated. 64 studies were included, published between 2001 and 2023, with a predominance of 2019 with five studies (21.7%). Italy was the country that appeared most with 11 studies (16.4%) carried out in the country. Regarding the use of probiotics, for the treatment of women with bacterial vaginosis (n=36) the outcome of restoration and colonization of the microbiota was the most common, with 11 studies (20.8%); for vulvovaginal candidiasis (n=13), the reduction in the recurrence rate was more predominant, in seven studies (33.3%); in healthy women (n=05), the outcome that appeared most frequently was restoration and/or colonization of the vaginal microbiota, in 4 studies (57.1%) and; in studies that discussed more than one vulvovaginitis (n=10), a decrease in the recurrence rate was more prevalent, in four studies (25.0%). From this scoping review, it is possible to conclude that there are several studies in the world literature that report significant results on the use of probiotics in the treatment and prevention of vulvovaginitis. However, more research on this topic still needs to be carried out.