Description of diarrhea
Only a handful of studies provided any details on the type and severity of diarrhea symptoms.55 , 60 , 74 In the study by Lin et al,55 23 of 95 patients (24%) reported having diarrhea (described as loose or watery stools, ranging from 2–10 bowel movements per day); however, only a small number of patients actually had diarrhea on admission (5.2%). Most patients developed diarrhea during the hospitalization, which may have been attributable to other treatments or medications. In the study by Jin et al60 of 651 hospitalized patients, 8.6% of patients had diarrhea on admission before receiving any treatments. The diarrhea symptoms were described as more than 3 loose stools per day. Stool cultures were negative (including Clostridium difficile) in all patients. There was no mention of fecal leukocytes. Median duration of symptoms was 4 days (range, 1–9 days) and most patients had self-limited diarrheal symptoms.60 One additional study on 175 hospitalized patients reported that 19.4% of patients had diarrhea, with an average of 6 episodes per day, with symptom duration ranging from 1 to 4 days.74