[Therapeutic results of ORS in infantile diarrheal dehydration].

The effectiveness of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and intravenous rehydration therapy for the management of mild or moderate dehydration caused by infantile diarrhea was compared by randomly assigning the 62 dehydrated infants, who presented at a treatment facility in the People's Republic of China, between June and November of 1983. The formula for the oral rehydration salts used in the study was 3.5 g of sodium chloride, 2.5 g of sodium bicarbonate, 1.5 g of potassium chloride, and 20 g of glucose diluted in 1000 ml of water. The effectiveness rate for the treatment of dehydration by ORT was 96.8%. No difference in the effectiveness rates for the intravenously and orally treated groups was observed; therefore, ORT may be substituted for intravenously administered therapy for dehydration cases. Furthermore, ORT was more effective in preventing and treating hypokalemia than intravenously administered treatment. In view of those findings, ORT should be more widely popularized in this country. (author's modified)