Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea

Abstract

difficile-associated diarrhoea during the first 6 months of 1995 were analysed retrospectively. The majority of the patients (106) had received antibiotics before the onset of diarrhoea; 46 had received three or more different antibiotics and 28 had received metronidazole. In 19 patients, the first stool sample after the onset of diarrhoea was negative for C difficile cytotoxin, with a mean delay of 8.2 days before a positive stool sample. We conclude that C difficile-associated diarrhoea was associated with the usage of multiple antibiotics, and that metronidazole did not protect against colonisation by C difficile.We also recommend that more than one stool sample should be tested for the C difficile cytotoxin.

Clostridium difficile associated diarrhoea in hospitalised patients: onset in the community and hospital and role of flexible sigmoidoscopy

“…12 13 In our retrospective audit of 110 patients with CDAD, the first stool sample after the onset of diarrhoea was negative for C difficile cytotoxin in 17%, resulting in a mean delay of 8.2 days before a diagnosis was made and appropriate treatment initiated. 14 Endoscopic examination of the colon can reveal characteristic yellowish pseudomembranes, often with intervening normal looking mucosa. Although endoscopic examination is recognised to allow rapid diagnosis of C difficile associated pseudomembranous colitis, 11 its role in the management of patients suspected of having CDAD remains to be determined.…”