Gastroenteritis due to Aeromonas in pediatrics

OBJECTIVE: In recent years the incidence of gastroenteritis due to Aeromonas spp has increased significantly. The purpose of this study was to investigate the etiology and clinical manifestations of this disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In the period between 1986 and 1992, we found Aeromonas spp in seventy patients (88 samples) between 0 and 16 years of age. We were able to analyze 53 of these samples. RESULTS: Of all of the patients, 66% were males and 58.5% were younger than two years old. We found a pattern in the disease with 83% of the cases occurring in summer and autumn. The infection was polymicrobial in 43% of the patients. The clinical manifestations most often found were fever (71%), vomiting (62.5%) and abdominal pain (9.4%). Diarrhea was watery in 71.7% and 64% of the cases lasted less than a week. The number of stools was 5 to 10 per day in 58% of the patients. Forty patients (75.5%) required hospitalization, with the stay being longer than 10 days in 25%. There were 30% of the patients that required antibiotic therapy, mostly due to concomitant infections and not due to the diarrheic episodes, with all of them having a satisfactory evolution.