Abstract
We investigated the effect of enteric adenovirus infections (ETAD) on children who had undergone abdominal surgical procedures resulting in intestinal stomas (ostomies). We studied 58 such children hospitalized in our institution over a 27 month period, 28 of whom had an underlying diagnosis of NEC. A total of 13 (22.4%) of the patients had at least one episode of ETAD during hospitalization documented by enzyme immunoassay during the study period. Ten of the 28 (35.7%) children with NEC had ETAD infections. Four of these children had evidence of two distinct infections with ETAD.
All of the children infected with ETAD had evidence of a substantially increased gastrointestinal output associated with their infections. In addition, infection with ETAD was associated with a substantial increase in length of hospitalization, (mean stay 163.8 +/- 42.4 days vs 46.1 +/- 11.8 days in uninfected controls, p < .01). Gastrointestinal infection with adenovirus was not associated with respiratory symptoms or conjunctivitis. Other causes of gastroenteritis such as rotavirus, bacteria, or toxins were not found to be significant gastrointestinal pathogens in this population and increased stool output was only infrequently noted in patients without evidence of ETAD. Adenoviruses appear to be important causes of morbidity in hospitalized patients with ostomies, especially in those with a history of NEC.
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Franklin, C., Yolken, R. ADENOVIRUS INFECTIONS AN IMPORTANT CAUSE OF MORBIDITY IN HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN FOLLOWING GASTROINTESTINAL SURGERY. Pediatr Res 18 (Suppl 4), 274 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-01089
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-01089