Helicobacter pylori treatment: antibiotics or probiotics

Abstract

Treatment of Helicobacter pylori infection is important for the management of gastrointestinal disorders such as peptic ulcer and gastric cancer. Due to the increase in the prevalence of H. pylori resistance to antibiotics, triple therapy with clarithromycin is no longer the best treatment for H. pylori, especially in some areas where the local resistance to this antibiotic is higher than 20%. Alternative treatments have been proposed for the eradication of H. pylori. Some of them including novel antibiotics or classical ones in different combinations; these treatments are being used in the regular clinical practice as novel and more effective treatments. Others therapies are using probiotics associated to antibiotics to treat this infection. The present article is a revision of H. pylori eradication treatment, focusing on emerging approaches to avoid the treatment failure, using new therapies with antimicrobials or with probiotics.