[Evaluation of pediatric patients hospitalized for acute diarrhea from 1990 to 1996].

Infectious diarrhea is a common disorder in children in Italy, which may lead to hospitalization especially during infancy. In order to obtain data about epidemiology and clinic pictures of acute diarrhea, the carts of 1295 paediatric outpatients, hospitalized for this pathology in the time between 1990-1996 at the Children's Hospital "Meyer" of Florence, were analyzed. An offending organism could be isolate in 43.3% of patients; Rotaviruses are the leading cause of diarrhea, followed by salmonella spp. Furthermore the role of Campylobacter as common bacterial pathogen worldwide has been clarified.