Introduction:

Diarrhea is a symptom, not a disease, since it is a nonspecific intestinal response to various stimulus, such as infections, direct action of toxins, inflammation or medications.

Objective:

To evaluate the effectiveness of rifaximin in acute profuse watery diarrhea in adult patients who attended the outpatient clinic of general medicine, internal medicine and gastroenterology in the national territory of Venezuela in the period March-October 2022.

Methods:

A study was naturalistic, open, multicenter, prospective, longitudinal, descriptive, for one week at a dose of rifaximin 400 mg BID for seven days. 84 patients met the inclusion criteria. The following data were collected, both in the baseline consultation and in subsequent visits receiving rifaximin: name, age, sex, days with diarrhea, evacuation frequency and type of stool consistency according to the Bristol scale, as well as the presence of other symptoms. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics techniques.

Results:

The average age was 51.50 ± 16.10 years, with an age range of 19 to 87 years, the female gender predominated (61.9%). When comparing the frequency of diarrhea episodes before and during the administration of rifaximin, it was observed that the episodes decreased by 51%, 76%, and 79%, at 3, 5, and 7 days, respectively. Efficacy and safety evaluated by doctors and patients were excellent in most cases. There were no adverse effects in 96%.

Conclusion:

The empirical use of rifaximin in acute profuse watery diarrhea is effective and safe.