To facilitate the task of treating diarrhea helps establish the appearance of this pathological bowel dysfunction. Usually there are 2 types of diarrhea in adults - with watery or with blood, and in the case when a specialist knows what type of a patient is present, it is much easier for him to carry out the necessary diagnostics and prescribe adequate treatment.
Most often, patients have a watery appearance of diarrhea, which can occur with acute intestinal infections, that is, when the small intestinal mucosa is affected by toxins of bacteria, or in the case of food poisoning. At this type of diarrhea pathogens in the intestine is very little, so antibiotic therapy in most cases is not required. The main thing in his treatment is the prevention of dehydration and the normalization of salt and water balance;
Diarrhea with bloody inclusions occurs due to amputation of the colon, amoebas, some varieties of E. coli, or causative agents of dysentery. With a bloody variety of diarrhea in adults, there is a high risk of intestinal perforation, since the disease itself is characterized by damage to its walls by microbes. Also, with it, sepsis is possible, the infection of blood, which arises from the penetration of microbes into its current. Vomiting, with bloody diarrhea, develops many times less often than with a disease accompanied by a watery stool. The main thing in his treatment is the elimination of the cause that caused the disease. This therapeutic method is performed with preparations of synthetic origin and antibiotics.
Possible types of diarrhea
Diarrhea in patients of all age groups is for the most part one of the main symptoms of this disease, in which there are 4 types. Each of them corresponds to its own type of liquid stool:
- Hypo-and hyperkinetic types of diarrhea develop either because of excess bacteria in the small intestine, or during severe stress and accompanied by watery diarrhea, the amount of stool in which, despite the frequency of stool, does not exceeda normal daily amount;
- Osmotic type of diarrhea can occur when a deficit of digestive enzymes occurs in the patient's body, which in adults can occur with chronic pancreatitis, removal of a portion of the small intestine or taking certain laxatives. It is accompanied by a plentiful watery diarrhea, containing the remains of half-digested food. In children, this kind of diarrhea most often occurs in the autumn-winter period due to rotavirus infection;
- Secretory type of diarrhea usually occurs against the background of taking some laxatives or because of the appearance of individual bacteria in the intestine. At the same time, the inflammatory process does not develop, and the lesion affects only the small intestine and is accompanied by diarrhea of a watery appearance without purulent or bloody inclusions. The pathological process begins with the appearance of frequent stools of fecal mass, at which very liquid and temperature increases. With the further development of the disease, vomiting occurs, and then dehydration quickly sets in;
- Exudative forms of this pathology of the digestive organ are diagnosed in the development of inflammatory bowel disease or its ischemic disease. Manifestations of this type of intestinal dysfunction will be painful sensations, increased gas formation and development of fermentation, violation of digestive and absorption functions, accelerated peristalsis due to which rapid evacuation of the intestinal contents, vomiting occurs. Diarrhea, if this form of the disease develops, will have a bloody appearance and contain impurities of pus. The danger of this type of diarrhea is that the bacteria that cause it easily damage the epithelial tissue and enter the bloodstream, resulting in the development of sepsis in the patient.
The type of diarrhea is the most basic indicator by which a gastroenterologist will be able to correctly diagnose and determine the necessary medical technique to avoid possible deterioration in the patient's condition.