[Pseudomembranous entercolitis after antibiotic treatment: vancomycin therapy]

After reporting the case of a child suffering from pseudomembranous colitis (PMC) rapidly cured by vancomycin, the authors present current knowledge which had led to this new mode of therapy. A patient of 2 years 7 months was treated with amoxycillin per os for 8 days for otitis media. A week after this treatment, diffuse abdominal pains appeared, with 8-12 diarrhoeic stools per day containing blood and mucus and recurrent episodes of rectal prolapsus. PMC was diagnosed after rectoscopy and rectal biopsy. The symptomatology persisted for 4 weeks at which time a treatment was begun with vancomycin 4 x 125 mg/day per os. Improvement of the gastrointestinal symptoms occurred 36 hours later, and a new rectal biopsy demonstrated recovery from PMC. Clinical and experimental studies have demonstrated that PMC is due to the proliferation of a toxin producing anaerobic bacterium, clostridium difficile. This organism is highly sensitive to vancomycin. Treatment with vancomycin eliminates clostridium difficile and its toxin from the stools of patients suffering from PMC and permits clinical and histological recovery.