RESUMEN
Objective:To investigate the etiology, incidence and clinical characteristics of pediatric prolonged and chronic diarrhea.Methods:The clinical data of children with prolonged and chronic diarrhea were collected and analyzed, which were hospitalized in the Department of Gastroenterology of the Children′s Hospital Affiliated to the Capital Institute of Pediatrics from January 2017 to June 2020.Results:A total of 190 children with prolonged and chronic diarrhea were collected, with a male-to-female ratio of 1.64∶1(118/72) and a median age of 11.2(5.0, 48.0)months.Among them, 74.3%(141/190) were infants aged 0-3 years, and 54.3%(103/190) were infants aged 0-1 years.The overall cure and improvement rate was 83.7%(159/190). Gastrointestinal concomitant symptoms were dominated by abdominal pain, and vomiting, bloating, and extraintestinal concomitant symptoms were mainly fever, weight loss, and growth and development disorders.Common comorbidities included malnutrition (46.3%), anemia (35.3%), and electrolyte abnormalities (20.5%). The lesion detection rate of electronic gastrointestinal endoscopy and capsule endoscopy reached 93.1%(122/131). The detection rate of genetic testing was 60.0%(9/15). In this group of studies, 169 patients had a clear cause, and the confirmed diagnosis rate was 88.9%.The main causes of childhood prolonged and chronic diarrhea were food allergy(36.8%), inflammatory bowel disease(12.6%), and irritable bowel syndrome(9.5%), but 11.1% of the children did not identify the cause after comprehensive examination.Conclusion:Children with prolonged and chronic diarrhea are mainly infants and young children, especially infants, with diverse etiology, mainly non-infectious factors, food allergy and inflammatory bowel disease are important causes.Malnutrition, anemia and other complications are easy to occur.Endoscopy is helpful in diagnosing and differentiating the cause, if necessary, genetic testing could help to determine the cause.