Author(s): Muralidhar Varma, Neha Agrawal*, Pallavi Uppal, Rahul Singh, Karunya Jayasimha, Shashidhar Vishwanath
Introduction:
Clostridium
difficile infections
have had significant
morbidity
and mortality
in
the last decade
leading
to high healthcare
costs.
Our prospective
case-control
study
from October
2013 to May 2015 in a tertiary care hospital in rural India aimed to evaluate the risk factors,
treatment,
outcome,
and complications
of Clostridium
difficile infections
in hospitalized
patients.
Materials and Methods:
The study involved a total of 183 patients, of which 61 were cases, and
122 were controls.
Data was analyzed
using
multivariate
logistic
regression.
Results:
Antibiotic
intake in the past four weeks (
p
=0.003),
hypoalbuminemia
(
p
=0.001) and duration of hospital
stay before
the onset
of diarrhea
(
p
<0.001)
were proven
to have significant
risk. We
subdivided
cases into severe and non-severe cases, and we found that complications were statistically higher
in severe cases (OR= 1.685, <0.001).
Conclusion:
Identifying severe cases and administering
timely and appropriate treatment is prudent.