What does diarrhea mean?

Diarrhea is quite common in our daily life, and there are many causes of diarrhea. The more common causes are food poisoning, poor diet, eating spoiled food, etc. In addition, catching a cold may also cause such a phenomenon. Of course, there are also some diseases that cause diarrhea, such as bacterial infection, viral infection, colitis, etc., which may cause such symptoms.

Clinical manifestations

1. Acute diarrhea

The onset is acute, and the course of the disease is within 2 to 3 weeks. It can be divided into watery diarrhea and dysentery-like diarrhea. The former does not contain blood or pus in the stool, may not be accompanied by tenesmus, and the abdominal pain is relatively mild; the latter has bloody and purulent stools, often accompanied by tenesmus and abdominal cramps. Infectious diarrhea is often accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and fever. Small intestine infection is often watery diarrhea, and large intestine infection is often bloody stool.

2. Chronic diarrhea

The frequency of bowel movements increases, with more than 3 bowel movements per day, loose or unformed stools, a water content of more than 85% in the stool, sometimes accompanied by mucus, pus and blood, and recurrent diarrhea that lasts for more than two months, or has an intermittent period of 2 to 4 weeks. Patients with lesions located in the rectum and/or sigmoid colon often have tenesmus, small bowel movements each time, and sometimes only a small amount of gas and mucus. The stool is darker pink and mostly sticky and may be mixed with blood. The abdominal discomfort is located on both sides of the abdomen or in the lower abdomen. The characteristics of diarrhea caused by small intestinal lesions are abdominal discomfort mostly located around the navel, which worsens after meals or before defecation, without tenesmus, and the stool is unformed, liquid, lighter in color, and larger in volume. In patients with chronic pancreatitis and small intestinal malabsorption, oil droplets, foam, food residues and a foul odor may be seen in the stool. Diarrhea caused by diseases such as schistosomiasis, chronic dysentery, colorectal cancer, and ulcerative colitis often contains pus and blood in the stool. Irritable bowel syndrome and intestinal tuberculosis often have alternating diarrhea and constipation. Depending on the cause, it may be accompanied by symptoms such as abdominal pain, fever, weight loss, and abdominal mass.

treat

Both etiological treatment and symptomatic treatment are important. Before the cause of the disease is determined, painkillers and antidiarrheal drugs should be used with caution to avoid masking symptoms and causing misdiagnosis and delaying the disease.

1. Treatment of the cause

(1) Anti-infection treatment: Choose appropriate antibiotics based on the different causes.

(2) For others, for example, people with lactose intolerance should not consume dairy products, and adults with celiac disease should avoid wheat products. Chronic pancreatitis can supplement with a variety of digestive enzymes. In case of drug-related diarrhea, the relevant drug should be discontinued immediately.

2. Symptomatic treatment

(1) General treatment corrects water, electrolyte, acid-base imbalance and nutritional imbalance. Replenish fluids, vitamins, amino acids, fat emulsions and other nutrients as appropriate.

(2) Mucosal protective agents: dioctahedral montmorillonite, sucralfate, etc.

(3) Probiotics such as Bifidobacterium can regulate intestinal flora.

(4) Antidiarrheal drugs should be selected according to the specific situation.

(5) Other drugs such as 654-2, propantheline bromide, and atropine have antispasmodic effects, but should be used with caution in patients with glaucoma, prostatic hypertrophy, and severe inflammatory bowel disease.