This week, as part of the Child Health Emergency Medicine Social Media Campaign, we are highlighting a Cochrane summary on oral versus intravenous rehydration for treating dehydration due to gastroenteritis in children. This review was selected for the TREKK Evidence Repository on gastroenteritis.
Key Messages:
Related TREKK Resources:
- Bottom Line Recommendations: Gastroenteritis [English] | Recommendations de base: gastro-entrite [Français]
- Evidence Repository: Gastroenteritis
- TREKK Gastroenteritis Video
Cochrane Summary:
Children with dehydration due to gastroenteritis need to be rehydrated, and this review did not show any important differences between giving fluids orally or intravenously
Dehydration is when body water content is reduced causing dry skin, headaches, sunken eyes, dizziness, confusion, and sometimes death. Children with dehydration due to gastroenteritis need rehydrating either by liquids given by mouth or a tube through the nose, or intravenously. The review of 17 trials (some funded by drug companies) found that the trials were not of high quality; however the evidence suggested that there are no clinically important differences between giving fluids orally or intravenously. For every 25 children treated with fluids given orally, one child would fail and require intravenous rehydration. Further, the results for low osmolarity solutions, the currently recommended treatment by the World Health Organization, showed a lower failure rate for oral rehydration that was not significantly different from that of intravenous rehydration. Oral rehydration should be the first line of treatment in children with mild to moderate dehydration with intravenous therapy being used if the oral route fails. The evidence showed that there may be a higher risk of paralytic ileus with oral rehydration while intravenous therapy carries the risk of phlebitis (ie inflammation of the veins).
Authors’ Conclusions:
Although no clinically important differences between oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and intravenous rehydration therapy (IVT), the ORT group did have a higher risk of paralytic ileus, and the IVT group was exposed to risks of intravenous therapy. For every 25 children (95% CI 14 to 100) treated with ORT one would fail and require IVT.
Check Out the Full Cochrane Systematic Review Below:
Hartling, L., Bellemare, S., Wiebe, N., Russell, K., Klassen, T.P., Craig, W. (2006). Oral versus intravenous rehydration for treating dehydration due to gastroenteritis in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 3, CD004390. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD004390.pub2
Did You Like the TREKK Gastroenteritis Video: My Child is Vomiting and Has Diarrhea?
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This post is part of a weekly blog series highlighting pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) focused Cochrane summaries and other key resources selected by TREKK.
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons.
Cochrane Child Health 