Diarrhea is divided into acute and chronic diarrhea.

1. Acute diarrhea

It has an acute onset and a course of disease within 2 to 3 weeks. It can be divided into watery diarrhea and dysentery-like diarrhea. The former’s stool does not contain blood or pus. It may not be accompanied by tenesmus, but the abdominal pain is mild; the latter has purulent and bloody stools, often accompanied by tenesmus and abdominal cramps. Infectious diarrhea is often accompanied by abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and fever. Small intestinal infection is often watery diarrhea, and large intestinal infection often contains bloody stool.

2. Chronic diarrhea

The frequency of defecation increases, more than three times a day, the stool is thin or shapeless, the water content of the feces is greater than 85%, sometimes accompanied by mucus, pus and blood, Recurrent diarrhea that lasts for more than two months, or has an intermittent period within 2 to 4 weeks. Patients with lesions located in the rectum and/or sigmoid colon often have tenesmus, small bowel movements each time, and sometimes only a small amount of gas and mucus are excreted. The color is darker pink, often in the form of sticky jelly, and may be mixed with blood. Abdominal discomfort is located on both sides of the abdomen or in the lower abdomen. .

Extended information:

The key to diagnosis of diarrhea is the diagnosis of the primary disease or cause, which needs to be based on the onset and course of the disease, the age of onset, the population of the disease, the frequency of diarrhea and the nature of the stool. , accompanying symptoms and signs, and routine laboratory tests, especially stool tests, to obtain evidence.

Acute diarrhea should be first identified based on the medical history, season of onset, accompanying systemic symptoms, etc., whether it is infectious diarrhea caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc., or diarrhea caused by food poisoning, drugs, or other diseases. The identification of pathogenic bacteria relies on stool culture, and intestinal mucosal biopsy is required for some parasites such as Giardia.

Chronic diarrhea can be diagnosed clearly through medical history, physical examination, digital anal examination, routine stool culture and search for eggs and parasites, stool fat measurement, gastrointestinal endoscopy and biopsy. First, it should be clear whether the diarrhea originates from the small intestine or colon.

If it is small intestinal diarrhea, further barium meal examination, enteroscopy and other laboratory tests should be performed to determine whether it is organic or functional. If it is colonic diarrhea, a colonoscopy should be performed to observe whether there are tumors, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, etc.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Diarrhea