Acute infectious Diarrhea in Pediatirc Patients

Ma, Sang Hyuk

Abstract

Acute diarrhea is one of the most common diseases that are seen in pediatric patients. In the management of acute diarrhea, several differential diagnostic criteria should be considered based on clinical and/or laboratory findings. These criteria include:(1) normal variant stool versus diarrhea (2) infectious versus non-infectious condition and (3) bacterial versus non-bacterial etiology. The use of antibiotics should be considered to manage diarrhea caused by bacteria accompanying fever and bloody diarrhea in the following cases:(1) patients with serious clinical course, (2) under three months, (3) immunocompromised patients, (4) patients with nutritional deficiency and (5) patients presenting with moderate-to-severe dehydration. In patients presenting with the symptoms suspected to be bacterial origin, whose clinical course is not serious, antibiotic therapy is not necessary. These patients are easily manageable at OPD level. Moreover, except for some cases in which the use of antibiotics is inevitable, pediatric diarrhea can be managed by providing the suitable foods alone with no necessity of other specific drugs. Accordingly, it is crucial not so much to depend on the drugs as to provide appropriate foods including oral rehydration solution(ORS) with no further episodes of diarrhea. Special attention should be paid to the fact that younger pediatric patients will undergo nutritional deficiency unless acute diarrhea is properly managed.