Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy of probiotics in the treatment of functional abdominal pain (FAP) in children. Methods: Clinical randomized controlled trials (RCT) on probiotics in the treatment of FAP in children performed at home and abroad were searched in PubMed

CNKI

Wanfang and VIP database by the combination of subject terms and free terms. The retrieval time was from the establishment of the database to Mar. 1st

2021. Meat-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.3 and Stata 14.0 software. Results: Eleven RCT (625 cases in the probiotic group and 558 cases in the control group) were eventually included. Meta-analysis showed that probiotics in the treatment of children with FAP was superior to placebo in relieving abdominal pain (SMD=-0.33

95%CI from -0.64 to -0.02

P<0.05) and clinical cure rate (OR=2.37

95%CI from 1.36 to 4.13

P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the probiotic group and control group in terms of decreasing the frequency and duration of abdominal pain. Conclusion: Probiotics in the treatment of children with FAP is superior to placebo in terms of clinical cure rate and relieving abdominal pain. Yet there is no significant difference in terms of decreasing frequency and duration of abdominal pain compared with placebo

suggesting that the multi-center randomized double-blind controlled trial may be needed to clarify the category

dose and duration of probiotics to provide stronger evidence.