Salmonella gastroenteritis in children: six-year experience in İstanbul, Turkey.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the demographic and clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of children with Salmonella gastroenteritis. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of pediatric patients aged between 1 month and 18 years with the diagnosis of Salmonella gastroenteritis between May 2015 and December 2021. A total of 172 children diagnosed with Salmonella gastroenteritis, including 113 outpatients and 59 hospitalized children, were included in this study. There were 95 (55.2%) males and 77 (44.8%) females with a median age of 59.5 months (interquartile range [IQR]: 33.5-96 months, min-max: 1-205 months). The most common clinical symptoms were diarrhea (n = 166, 96.5%), fever (n = 113, 65.7%) and abdominal pain (n = 73, 42.4%). Bloody diarrhea was seen in 19.2% of patients. Fifty (29.1%) of the Salmonella species could not be typed. Serogroup D (n = 106, 61.6%) was the predominant serogroup isolated from stool cultures, followed by serogroup B (n = 16, 9.3%). 62.2% of the isolates were susceptible to ampicillin, 97.7% to ciprofloxacin, 98.8% to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and 98.8% to ceftriaxone. Fever, vomiting, and underlying disease occurred more frequently in hospitalized patients than in outpatients (p: 0.005, p: 0.000, p: 0.000, respectively). C-reactive protein value was found to be higher in hospitalized patients (p: 0.000). Salmonella should be considered as a causative agent in pediatric patients with abdominal pain, fever, and bloody-mucous diarrhea, and patients with severe clinical conditions should be hospitalized and antibiotic therapy initiated if indicated.