title: Study of diarrhea in critically ill patients.
abstract: There has been an impression that diarrhea occurs commonly in seriously ill patients treated in ICUs. In view of the sparsity of published work on the problem, we embarked on a prospective study of all patients admitted to the ICU for more than 48 h over a 12-month period. Three factors were examined in detail: nasogastric feeding, cimetidine administration, and antibiotic treatment. Other factors also were considered, notably the nature of the underlying illness and the spread of a possible infective agent by cross-infection. There was a 41% incidence of diarrhea. A significant increase in the incidence of diarrhea occurred in patients on nasogastric feeding (p less than 0.01) and in those receiving cimetidine (p less than 0.05); there was no increased incidence in those receiving antibiotic therapy. The cytotoxin of Clostridium difficile was specifically looked for in all patients with diarrhea, but was not detected.
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000009:adverse effects; D002927:Cimetidine / Q000009:adverse effects; D003422:Critical Care / Q000009:adverse effects*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005526:Food, Formulated / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D007441:Intubation, Gastrointestinal / Q000009:adverse effects; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D002927:Cimetidine