Acute Diarrhoea in Children Aged Up to 2 Years Age Group: Assessment of Therapeutic Strategies and Hospital Stay Variance, in Tertiary Care Rural Hospital – An Observational Study

Abstract

Acute Diarrhoea, it is one of the leading causes of under 5 childrens’ morbidity and mortality in India. It is most common in children especially those between 6 months and 2 years. Antimicrobials are mostly used drug for acute diarrhoeal cases according to many studies but according to WHO antibiotics are not required for all the diarrhoeal cases except few bacterial diarrhoeas. Other way, WHO recommends Zinc with low osmolarity ORS for acute diarrhoea. So, this study was designed for assessing the treatment pattern and its outcome in our setup. Objectives: - To assess the use of antibiotics and Zinc among children under 2 years suffering from acute Diarrhoea by analysing average of use and hospital stay. Materials and Methods: - This observational study includes 76 patients, admitted under Paediatric Department of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, in the period of 6 months. All the patients admitted during the study period having acute Diarrhoea with moderate dehydration as per definition of WHO was included in the study. Patients with other existing diseases, bloody diarrhoea and seriously ill were excluded. Data was collected from Paediatric ward and was analysed by using GraphPad software. Results: - Over all among the 76 patients, 25(32.89%) patients received antimicrobials only and 31(40.79%) received Zinc only and11(14.47%) patients received both. Hospital stay difference was not statistically significant in culture negative acute diarrhoea cases with the use of zinc and antimicrobials (p = 0.08) but it was significant in culture positive cases (p = 0.03). Conclusion: - In culture negative acute diarrhoeal cases Zinc was mostly used and hospital stay was not found to be significant with and without antimicrobials. Implication: - Uncomplicated acute diarrhoeal cases may be treated with Zinc alone effectively.