[Importance of oral rehydration in acute infantile diarrhea. Comparison of 2 rehydration solutions]

Oral rehydration therapy has gained worldwide acceptance as the standard treatment for acute diarrhoeal diseases in infants and children. Besides the high sodium glucose-electrolyte solution based on the WHO/UNICEF recommendations, many diverse formulations of oral rehydration solutions (ORS) have withstood the trial of prolonged clinical use, their main differences concerning the concentration of sodium, the choice of the glycidic component, the use of bicarbonate as buffer or its substitution with acetate or citrate. It was recently hypothesized that glucose polymers-containing ORS markedly improve the intestinal sodium/glucose cotransport by delivering glucose at its critical site on the luminal villous membrane and therefore diminish stool output and duration of the diarrhoea. To investigate this hypothesis, the efficacies of two marketed ORS (table I), one containing sucrose and maltodextrin (solution A) and the other containing glucose (solution B) were compared. The study group comprised 13 infants and toddlers, 1 to 18 months old, who presented with acute diarrhea; 5 were males and 8 females; 7 were randomly allocated to receive solution A (Group A), 6 solution B (Group B). There were no significant differences between the groups in age, sex, causation of diarrhea or severity of dehydration before receiving ORS. Both groups showed a satisfactory response to 24 hours of treatment with either ORS, but a significantly lower stool output (number and global weight of stools) and higher blood glucose and bicarbonate levels were detected in group A (table II).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)