Demographic, Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of Acute Rotaviral Gastroenteritis in Children Admitted to Department of Infectious Diseases, University Medical Centre Ljubljana from 2015 to 2016

Background: Rotavirus is the most common cause of hospitalization for acute gastroenteritis in children and still has a high mortality rate in the developing world.

Objective: To analyze demographic, clinical and laboratory characteristics at time of admission, and fluid replacement therapy among children with acute rotaviral gastroenteritis, admitted to Department of Infectious Diseases.

Methods: We reviewed medical records of hospitalized patients under the age of 18 with the International Classification of Diseases diagnosis of rotaviral gastroenteritis (ICD A080) between September 1st 2015 and August 31st 2016.

Results: Two hundred and seven patients, median age 21 months, 194/207 (94%) under the age of 7, 97 (47%) girls, were hospitalized for a median length of stay 2 days. The majority of patients were healthy before the onset of acute gastroenteritis. Vomiting and diarrhea were found in 164/207 (79%), only vomiting in 32/207 (15%), and diarrhea in 11/207 (5%), beginning two days (median value) before admission. Forty-five percent were afebrile. Eleven patients (5%) were admitted with another or concomitant diagnosis. No dehydration severity scoring systems were used to grade the severity of dehydration, the clinicians rather used a combination of one or more clinical signs or symptoms to assess the severity of dehydration, most frequently general appearance, moisture of mucus membranes, heart rate, urine output, skin elasticity and capillary refill time. Ninety-eight (46%) had elevated CRP, 28 (13%) were hyponatremic, none was hypernatremic. In almost all of the cases, intravenous infusion was started immediately, with average total 84 ml/kg of body mass received during hospitalization. Readmission rate was low (6/207, 2,9%). No patients died.

Conclusion: Early admission after the onset and early beginning of the fluid replacement therapy were found among our patient. There were only few cases of severe dehydration or severe electrolyte imbalances.