Mortality due to C difficile colitis in elderly people has been underestimated

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
EDITOR,—M Impallomeni and colleagues report the frequency of diarrhoea due to Clostridium difficile in elderly patients receiving cefotaxime.1 Having seen two cases of fatal toxic megacolon after such infection, we reviewed all the obtainable notes for the 47 patients diagnosed in our hospital during December 1993 as having C difficile diarrhoea. Only 30 sets of notes were available for review. The diagnosis was made on the basis of detection of the toxin and the results of stool culture. The patients …