Comparison of sucrose with glucose in oral therapy of infant diarrhea

Abstract

In a randomised double-blind trial, 51 5-10% dehydrated infants were rehydrated with oral electrolyte solutions containing sucrose or glucose. Most infants in both groups were successfuUy rehydrated, but the sucrose solution produced a slower correction of electrolyte abnormalities and a higher percentage of patients who needed more than 24 h of therapy. Where there is adequate knowledge of the oral therapy method sucrose can substitute for glucose in many cases; wbere there is a choice glucose is recommended. THERE is controversy over the relative merits of sucrose and glucose in sugar-electrolyte solutions for oral replacement of diarrhoeal fluid-losses. While both solutions can reduce intravenous fluid needs, 1-4 children! and adults%" receiving the sucrose solution have tended to have more diarrhoea. No controlled trial of sucrose versus glucose has beenreported in infants, who form the majority of patients with acute dehydrating diarrheea, and no trial has compared the two oral solutions without any intravenous fluids in patients with significant dehydration. Because of the importance to government health planners of establishing the relative merits of the two solutions, they were compared in a controlled double-blind clinical trial at the National Children's Hospital, San Jose, Costa Rica.