Clinical characteristics of diarrhea in 90 cases with COVID-19: A descriptive study
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Journal: 2020/August - International Emergency Nursing
Abstract:
Background: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread worldwide. Herein, we aimed to clarify the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with diarrhea.
Methods: A descriptive design was adopted from Jan 10 to Feb 17, 2020. All the cases included were diagnosed with COVID-19 under the interim guidance of the WHO.
Results: 912 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to hospital, in which, 90 cases (9.87%) presented with diarrhea. Among the 90 cases, 8 cases (9%) presented with diarrhea as the initial symptom, and 24%, 17%, and 24% of the patients complained of nausea, vomiting, and poor appetite, respectively. The most common fecal characteristics on admission were watery stool (64%) and mushy stool (28%). For the defecation frequency, 37% of the cases defecated over three times a day. The median time from illness onset to diarrhea was 3.0 days (IQR 0.0-5.0) and the median duration of diarrhea was 5.0 days (IQR 2.0-9.3).
Conclusion: Clinicians are required to promptly identify the patients with initial diarrhea symptoms and pay adequate attention to the nutrient requirements of the patients with diarrhea during hospitalization. Standardized management is also recommended for the discharge of the patients to avoid potential fecal-oral transmission.
Keywords: COVID-19; Diarrhea; Fecal-oral transmission; Gastrointestinal symptoms; Infection; Nursing; Nutrition.
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Int Emerg Nurs 52: 100912
PMID: 32827932

Clinical characteristics of diarrhea in 90 cases with COVID-19: A descriptive study

Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1095 Jiefang Avenue, Qiaokou District, Wuhan, China
Sufang Huang: moc.361@8002gnauhfs
Corresponding author. moc.361@8002gnauhfs
Received 2020 Apr 4; Revised 2020 Jul 13; Accepted 2020 Aug 5.
Copyright © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

Background

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread worldwide. Herein, we aimed to clarify the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with diarrhea.

Background
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has spread worldwide. Herein, we aimed to clarify the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with diarrhea.

Methods

A descriptive design was adopted from Jan 10 to Feb 17, 2020. All the cases included were diagnosed with COVID-19 under the interim guidance of the WHO.

Methods
A descriptive design was adopted from Jan 10 to Feb 17, 2020. All the cases included were diagnosed with COVID-19 under the interim guidance of the WHO.

Results

912 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to hospital, in which, 90 cases (9.87%) presented with diarrhea. Among the 90 cases, 8 cases (9%) presented with diarrhea as the initial symptom, and 24%, 17%, and 24% of the patients complained of nausea, vomiting, and poor appetite, respectively. The most common fecal characteristics on admission were watery stool (64%) and mushy stool (28%). For the defecation frequency, 37% of the cases defecated over three times a day. The median time from illness onset to diarrhea was 3.0 days (IQR 0.0–5.0) and the median duration of diarrhea was 5.0 days (IQR 2.0–9.3).

Results
912 patients with COVID-19 were admitted to hospital, in which, 90 cases (9.87%) presented with diarrhea. Among the 90 cases, 8 cases (9%) presented with diarrhea as the initial symptom, and 24%, 17%, and 24% of the patients complained of nausea, vomiting, and poor appetite, respectively. The most common fecal characteristics on admission were watery stool (64%) and mushy stool (28%). For the defecation frequency, 37% of the cases defecated over three times a day. The median time from illness onset to diarrhea was 3.0 days (IQR 0.0–5.0) and the median duration of diarrhea was 5.0 days (IQR 2.0–9.3).

Conclusion

Clinicians are required to promptly identify the patients with initial diarrhea symptoms and pay adequate attention to the nutrient requirements of the patients with diarrhea during hospitalization. Standardized management is also recommended for the discharge of the patients to avoid potential fecal-oral transmission.

Conclusion
Clinicians are required to promptly identify the patients with initial diarrhea symptoms and pay adequate attention to the nutrient requirements of the patients with diarrhea during hospitalization. Standardized management is also recommended for the discharge of the patients to avoid potential fecal-oral transmission.
Demographics and clinical characteristics of patients presenting with diarrhea.
Laboratory findings of patients presenting with diarrhea.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Declaration of Competing Interest

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