Is Electrolyte Maintenance Solution Required in Low-Risk Children With Gastroenteritis?
Is Electrolyte Maintenance Solution Required in Low-Risk Children With Gastroenteritis?
The objective of this study is to clarify the current standard of care by determining if
 Electrolyte Maintenance Solution (EMS) is truly the optimal fluid to be used in low-risk
 children who present to an Emergency Department (ED) with < 72 hours of vomiting or diarrhea.
Gastroenteritis remains a major cause of morbidity amongst Canadian children. The primary
 treatment focus revolves around the use of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) to treat
 dehydration and replace intravascular volume. Since diarrheal disease in Canadian children
 usually results in mild dehydration and minimal sodium losses, the use of low sodium
 Electrolyte Maintenance Solutions (EMS) has become the standard of care. However, given that
 North American children infrequently develop severe dehydration, it is unclear if the routine
 use of EMS is justified. When pediatricians directly dispense EMS, 16 children need to be
 treated to prevent 1 unscheduled office visit, however the upper bound of the 95% confidence
 interval is an astounding 508 patients. In addition, EMS is considered by some to be
 prohibitively expensive, with 15% of pediatricians believing it to be too expensive for their
 patients to purchase. An additional 40% report that taste is a major barrier to consumption.
 As a result, oral fluid replenishment is often underutilized and IV rehydration employed
 instead. Our goal is to provide evidence to guide the selection of the optimal ORT fluids in
 low-risk children, thus increasing its use, enhancing its success, and reducing the reliance
 on intravenous rehydration. We hypothesize that the strict adherence to EMS use in low-risk
 children may actually be counterproductive by resulting in reduced fluid intake and
 potentially increasing the use of intravenous rehydration.
Inclusion Criteria:

 -  ≥3 episodes of vomiting or diarrhea in preceding 24 hours

 -  Duration of illness less than 96 hours

 -  Age 6 - 60 months

 -  Clinical suspicion of acute intestinal infectious process

 -  Weight ≥ 8 kg

 -  Clinical dehydration score < 5

 -  Capillary refill < 2 seconds

 -  Absence of bulging fontanelle

 -  Absence of bilious vomiting

 -  Absence of blood in diarrhea/emesis

 -  Absence of abdominal pain (if present reported as periumbilical in location)

 -  Absence of abdominal distention

 -  Absence of acute disease currently requiring treatment

 -  Absence of co-existing diseases (prematurity, cardiac, renal, neurological, metabolic,
 endocrine, immunodeficiency, trauma or history of ingestion)

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  Known gastrointestinal diseases (ie. inflammatory bowel disease, celiac) or any other
 underlying disease process that might place the child at an increased risk of
 treatment failure.

 -  Age < 6 months

 -  Weight < 8 kg

 -  If premature, corrected gestational age < 30 weeks

 -  Presence of hematochezia

 -  Responsible physician judges the child requires immediate intravenous rehydration

 -  English language is so limited that consent and/or follow-up is not possible.

 -  Non-Ontario resident [Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) follow-up data
 will not be available]