Background: Acute evaluation and treatment of children presenting with dehydration represent one of the most common situation in the pediatric emergency department. To identify dehydration in infants and children before treatment, a number of symptoms and clinical signs have been evaluated. The aim of the study was to describe the performance of clinical signs in detecting dehydration in children. Methods: Two hundred children aged 1 month to 5 year were involved in our prospective study. The clinical assessment consisted of the ten clinical signs of dehydration, including those recommended by WHO (World Health Organization), heart rate, and capillary refill time. Results: Two hundred patients with diarrhea were enrolled in the study. The mean age was 15.62±9.03 months and 57.5% were male. Of these 121 had a fluid deficit of < 5%, 68 had a deficit of 5 to 9% and 11(5.5%) had a deficit of 10% or more. Patients classified as having no or mild, moderate, and severe dehydration were found to have the following respective gains in percent weight at the end of illness: 2.44±0.3, 6.05± 1.01 and, 10.66± 0.28, respectively. All clinical signs were found more frequently with increasing amounts of dehydration(p
Key words: acute gastroenteritis, dehydration, clinical signs of dehydration.
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