Clinical trial on the efficacy of an instant rice based ORS on the outcome of acute diarrhea with dehydration

ABSTRACT

The study included sixty male infants with acute diarrhea either exclusively breast or exclusively formula fed with weight for height 70% or more of median NCHS reference and without severe dehydration, bloody diarrhea or fever more than 38.5oC. They were randomly allocated either into WHO-ORS or Rice-Based-ORS intake. Beside clinical history and clinical examination including the weight of bare child, data were recorded for body weight, stools output and amount of the ORS intake every 3 hours. The amount of cereal based diet intake [one meal] and 0 and 24 hours serum levels of sodium and potassium were also recorded. Rice Baed-ORS intake was associated with shorter duration of diarrhea after admission and higher weight gain. The shorter duration of diarrhea was true both for breast fed and formula fed cases. The better gain in weight was significantly evident in formula fed cases. It is noteworthy that breast fed cases showed significantly better weight gain and significantly lower stool output and purging rate than formula fed cases, irrespective of the type of ORS used. During the study 47 cases showed successful rehydration and 13 cases showed failure of rehydration. It is noteworthy that cases with successful rehydration showed significantly lower stools output and purging rate in the first 6 hour and in the first 24 hours, and significantly higher amount of ORS intake in the first 24 hours than cases with failure of rehydreation. Serum sodium and potassium levels at 0 and 24 were within normal limits and no significant changes were observed on follow up which further support that ORS with sodium 90 mmol/litre is safe