May 01, 2025

Chapter 43 - Code Brown: When the runs run the room! - Management of Acute Diarrheal Emergencies

59 minutes

Diarrhea is one of the more common concerns in emergency medicine worldwide and in the United States, yet we often do not spend enough time understanding the breadth of causes and considerations for this syndrome. Do you know which patients benefit from Zinc? Would you like to review HUS? Can you mixup Oral Rehydration Solution if you needed to? We cover all of this and more in this “code brown” of a chapter! So come, get dirty with Alex and Venk in this truly crappy chapter of Always on EM!

CONTACTS

X - @AlwaysOnEM; @VenkBellamkonda

YouTube - @AlwaysOnEM; @VenkBellamkonda

Instagram – @AlwaysOnEM; @Venk_like_vancomycin; @ASFinch

Email - [email protected]

REFERENCES & LINKS

Shane AL, Mody RK, Crump JA, Tarr PI, Steiner TS, Kotloff K, Langley JM, Wanke C, Warren CA, Cheng AC, Cantey J, Pickering LK. 2017 Infectious Diseases Society of America Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Infectious Diarrhea. Clin Infect Dis. 2017 Nov 29;65(12):e45-e80. doi: 10.1093/cid/cix669. PMID: 29053792; PMCID: PMC5850553.

Gore JI, Surawicz C. Severe acute diarrhea. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2003 Dec;32(4):1249-67. doi: 10.1016/s0889-8553(03)00100-6. PMID: 14696306; PMCID: PMC7127018.

Freedman SB, van de Kar NCAJ, Tarr PI. Shiga Toxin–Producing Escherichia coli and the Hemolytic–Uremic Syndrome. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2023;389(15):1402-1414. doi:10.1056/NEJMra2108739.

Logan C, Beadsworth MB, Beeching NJ. HIV and diarrhoea: what is new? Curr Opin Infect Dis. 2016 Oct;29(5):486-94. doi: 10.1097/QCO.0000000000000305. PMID: 27472290.

Chassany O, Michaux A, Bergmann JF. Drug-induced diarrhoea. Drug Saf. 2000 Jan;22(1):53-72. doi: 10.2165/00002018-200022010-00005. PMID: 10647976.

Schiller LR. Secretory diarrhea. Curr Gastroenterol Rep. 1999 Oct;1(5):389-97. doi: 10.1007/s11894-999-0020-8. PMID: 10980977.

Gong Z, Wang Y. Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor-Mediated Diarrhea and Colitis: A Clinical Review. JCO Oncol Pract. 2020 Aug;16(8):453-461. doi: 10.1200/OP.20.00002. Epub 2020 Jun 25. PMID: 32584703.

Do C, Evans GJ, DeAguero J, Escobar GP, Lin HC, Wagner B. Dysnatremia in Gastrointestinal Disorders. Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 May 13;9:892265. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.892265. PMID: 35646996; PMCID: PMC9136014.

Expert Panel on Gastrointestinal Imaging; Chang KJ, Marin D, Kim DH, Fowler KJ, Camacho MA, Cash BD, Garcia EM, Hatten BW, Kambadakone AR, Levy AD, Liu PS, Moreno C, Peterson CM, Pietryga JA, Siegel A, Weinstein S, Carucci LR. ACR Appropriateness Criteria® Suspected Small-Bowel Obstruction. J Am Coll Radiol. 2020 May;17(5S):S305-S314. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2020.01.025. PMID: 32370974.

Rami Reddy SR, Cappell MS. A Systematic Review of the Clinical Presentation, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Small Bowel Obstruction. Curr Gastroenterol Rep. 2017 Jun;19(6):28. doi: 10.1007/s11894-017-0566-9. PMID: 28439845.

Modahl L, Digumarthy SR, Rhea JT, Conn AK, Saini S, Lee SI. Emergency department abdominal computed tomography for nontraumatic abdominal pain: optimizing utilization. J Am Coll Radiol. 2006 Nov;3(11):860-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2006.05.011. PMID: 17412185.

Scheirey CD, Fowler KJ, Therrien JA, et al. ACR Appropriateness Criteria Acute Nonlocalized Abdominal Pain. Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR. 2018;15(11S):S217-S231. doi:10.1016/j.jacr.2018.09.010.

Atia AN, Buchman AL. Oral rehydration solutions in non-cholera diarrhea: a review. Am J Gastroenterol. 2009 Oct;104(10):2596-604; quiz 2605. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2009.329. Epub 2009 Jun 23. PMID: 19550407.

Musekiwa A, Volmink J. Oral rehydration salt solution for treating cholera: ≤ 270 mOsm/L solutions vs ≥ 310 mOsm/L solutions. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2011 Dec 7;2011(12):CD003754. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003754.pub3. PMID: 22161381; PMCID: PMC6532622.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Scombroid fish poisoning associated with tuna steaks--Louisiana and Tennessee, 2006. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2007 Aug 17;56(32):817-9. PMID: 17703171.

Résière D, Florentin J, Mehdaoui H, Mahi Z, Gueye P, Hommel D, Pujo J, NKontcho F, Portecop P, Nevière R, Kallel H, Mégarbane B. Clinical Characteristics of Ciguatera Poisoning in Martinique, French West Indies-A Case Series. Toxins (Basel). 2022 Aug 3;14(8):535. doi: 10.3390/toxins14080535. PMID: 36006197; PMCID: PMC9415704.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Ciguatera fish poisoning--Texas, 1998, and South Carolina, 2004. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2006 Sep 1;55(34):935-7. PMID: 16943762.

Thyroid Inferno EM Blog: https://emblog.mayo.edu/2014/11/01/thyroid-inferno/

Lazzerini M, Wanzira H. Oral zinc for treating diarrhoea in children. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Dec 20;12(12):CD005436. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD005436.pub5. PMID: 27996088; PMCID: PMC5450879.

Dhingra U, Kisenge R, Sudfeld CR, Dhingra P, Somji S, Dutta A, Bakari M, Deb S, Devi P, Liu E, Chauhan A, Kumar J, Semwal OP, Aboud S, Bahl R, Ashorn P, Simon J, Duggan CP, Sazawal S, Manji K. Lower-Dose Zinc for Childhood Diarrhea - A Randomized, Multicenter Trial. N Engl J Med. 2020 Sep 24;383(13):1231-1241. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1915905. PMID: 32966722; PMCID: PMC7466932.

Dalfa RA, El Aish KIA, El Raai M, El Gazaly N, Shatat A. Oral zinc supplementation for children with acute diarrhoea: a quasi-experimental study. Lancet. 2018 Feb 21;391 Suppl 2:S36. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)30402-1. Epub 2018 Feb 21. PMID: 29553435.

WANT TO WORK AT MAYO?

EM Physicians: https://jobs.mayoclinic.org/emergencymedicine

EM NP PAs: https://jobs.mayoclinic.org/em-nppa-jobs

Nursing/Techs/PAC: https://jobs.mayoclinic.org/Nursing-Emergency-Medicine

EMTs/Paramedics: https://jobs.mayoclinic.org/ambulanceservice

All groups above combined into one link: https://jobs.mayoclinic.org/EM-Jobs

...more

View all episodes

By Alex Finch; Venk Bellamkonda

4.9

2727 ratings