Treatment of Chronic Diarrhea
Treatment of chronic diarrhea depends on the cause of the chronic diarrhea. Depending on the cause of chronic diarrhea, the treatment may be curative (for example if chronic diarrhea is due to a drug, withdrawal of the drug will cure the chronic diarrhea), suppressive, or empirical treatment. Chronic diarrhea due to infectious agent can be cured by administration of appropriate antibiotics.
Chronic diarrhea can be suppressed by suppressing the underlying mechanism of chronic diarrhea. Examples of suppression of mechanism of chronic diarrhea include removing lactose (milk disaccharide) from diet in lactase deficiency, provision of gluten free diet in celiac sprue etc. Use of proton pump inhibitor drugs such as omeprazole in gastric hyper-secretion of gastrinomas, prostaglandin inhibitors such as NSAIDS (like indomethacin, diclofenac etc.) for medullary carcinoma of the thyroid gland, and pancreatic enzyme replacement for pancreatic insufficiency which cause chronic diarrhea are also examples of suppression of mechanism of chronic diarrhea.Categories: GIT Problems Tags:
What are the Causes of Chronic Diarrhea?
Diarrhea lasting more then 4 weeks can be termed as chronic diarrhea. Chronic diarrhea may be indication of some potentially serious underlying pathology and need thorough investigation. Most commonly chronic diarrhea is due to non infectious cause, unlike acute diarrhea, which are commonly due to infectious cause.
The causes of chronic diarrhea can be grouped in seven groups and they are (1) secretory causes, (2) inflammatory causes, (3) osmotic causes, (4) dysmitility causes, (5) due to steatorea, (6) factitial causes and (7) iatrogenic causes or caused due to hospital/medical intervention.Categories: GIT Problems Tags:
Principles of Management of Acute Diarrhea
The important principle of management of diarrhea is to determine the severity of dehydration and treat diarrhea according to the severity of dehydration. Severity of dehydration can be assessed clinically. The severity of dehydration is actually due to loss of fluid and electrolytes and the more the loss of fluid and electrolytes the severe is dehydration. Whenever there is loss of fluid by gastrointestinal route (vomiting or diarrhea or loose motion) there is always accompanying loss of electrolytes.
Dehydration is divided into mild, moderate and severe dehydration. The treatment of diarrhea generally depends on the severity of diarrhea. The severe the dehydration, the vigorous is the treatment.Categories: GIT Problems Tags:
Treat Acute Diarrhea Promptly
Acute diarrhea is fairly common problem, especially in the developing countries and among children of less than 5 years of age. Diarrhea is one of the leading cause of death among infants and children below 5 years of age in developing countries and acute diarrhea causes an economic loss or economic burden at the tune of more than $20 billions per annum worldwide. This staggering figure of financial burden can be reduced to a great extent by treating diarrhea promptly and adequately at home. Most of the cases of diarrhea can be treated at home with ingredients available at home.
Diarrhea is in most cases mild to moderate severity, but if left untreated it may be fatal in extreme cases. Prompt treatment and correct treatment of acute diarrhea is the answer to reduce mortality and morbidity from diarrhea.Categories: GIT Problems Tags:
Who are at High Risk of Acute Diarrhea?
If you are living in the United States or in other developed industrial countries you may be at high risk of contacting acute diarrhea, especially due to pathogenic microorganisms. The are five different groups of people who are at high risk of acute diarrhea in compare to normal population.
These five high risk groups include (1) travelers, especially international travelers to developing countries, (2) immunocompromized persons (e.g. AIDS patients), (3) consumers of certain foods, (4) hospitalized persons, especially long term hospital stay, and (5) attendants of day care centers and their family members.Categories: GIT Problems Tags:
