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A RESRARCH STUDY TO ASSESS THE CLINICAL COMPLICATIONS AND FEATURES OF ROTAVIRUS GASTROENTERITIS AMONG CHILDREN

Dr. Komal Nizam, Dr Muhammad Usman Khan, Dr Qurrat ul Aen Zafar

Background: Rotavirus is one of the major viruses causing an onset of acute gastroenteritis among children and it is also correlated with neurological complications such as encephalopathy and seizures. Objective: This research aims to investigate the complications and presentation of rotavirus versus non-rotavirus gastroenteritis. Methods: This retrospective, hospital-based and case-control study was carried out at Jinnah Hospital, Lahore (October 2017 to August 2018). The research included children from one month to sixteen years of age who were diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. These children were evaluated for stool virology and PCR confirmed rotavirus presence. These patients were matched for presentation month, gender and age with negative rotavirus gastroenteritis. Results: Research sample consisted of 116 children among which cases were 50 and controls were 66. Children diagnosed with the presence of rotavirus gastroenteritis also presented metabolic acidosis (pH 7.30 versus 7.37 pH) P-Value = 0.011 and fever (P-Value = 0.005; 74% vs 46%) which also required hospitalization than non-rotavirus gastroenteritis children (P-Value = 0.019; 93% vs 73%). Neurological complications were mostly repeated extraintestinal indices, but there was no significant difference between rotavirus negative and positive gastroenteritis children RPG versus RNG (P-Value = 0.24; 24% vs 15%). Encephalopathy occurred in three children (6%) with rotavirus infection. Conclusion: Rotavirus tends to cause more severe and longer disease than other viral pathogens. Milder neurological signs and seizures are common and related to multiple pathogens; whereas, only rotavirus gastroenteritis diagnosed children presented Encephalopathy. Keywords: Seizures, Rotavirus, Disease, Pathogen, Encephalopathy and Gastroenteritis.

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