A randomised, double-blind clinical trial of a maltodextrin containing oral rehydration solution in acute infantile diarrhoea.

We compared the efficacy of a maltodextrin containing oral rehydration salts (ORS) solution with that of the WHO recommended glucose-ORS solution in a double blind randomized study of treating 69 children (33 in experimental group; 36 in control group) aged 4-36 months with acute diarrhoea causing mild to moderate dehydration. Both the groups of children were similar in initial clinical characteristics and received only ORS solutions. No significant differences in stool output (median 88.0, range 34-320 g/kg body wt. in experiment vs 75.0, 25-410 g/kg in control), intake of ORS solution (125.0, 58-360 ml/kg body wt. vs 154, 130-250 ml/kg), and duration of recovery from diarrhoea (2.0 d, range 1-6 vs 2.0 d, 1-9) were found between the groups. The haematocrit and serum electrolyte values in the two groups 24 hours after starting treatment were also similar. The results suggest that the ORS containing maltodextrin (50 g/l) in place of glucose has no advantage over WHO-ORS in correcting mild to moderate dehydration of children with acute diarrhoea.