A comparative study of glycine fortified oral rehydration solution with standard WHO oral rehydration solution

The safety, efficacy and acceptability of glycine-fortified oral rehydration solution (ORS) was compared with that of standard WHO-ORS in a controlled randomized trial. Fifty male infants with acute, watery, non-cholera diarrhea were studied. Glycine-fortified ORS at a concentration of 111 mmol/L (8.4 g/L) was used. The electrolyte and glucose concentrations of both the solutions was identical. The proportion of successfully treated patients was 92%. There were two failures in each group. Both solutions were found to be equally safe in correcting and maintaining the hydration status and in correcting hyponatremia and hypokalemia. The acceptability and efficiency of the solutions were also comparable. Addition of glycine does not add to the efficacy of conventional WHO-ORS, therefore offering no additional advantage but adds to the cost of production.