Why is the white stool? Profuse watery diarrhea is a hallmark of cholera. Cholera should be suspected when a patient older than 5 years develops severe dehydration from acute, severe, watery diarrhea (usually without vomiting) or in any patient older than 2 years who has acute watery diarrhea and is in an area where an outbreak of cholera has occurred. Stool volume during cholera is more than that of any other infectious diarrhea. Patients with severe disease may have a stool volume of more than 250 mL/kg body weight in a 24-hour period. Because of the large volume of diarrhea, patients with cholera have frequent and often uncontrolled bowel movements. The stool may contain fecal material early in the course of clinical illness. The characteristic cholera stool is an opaque white liquid that is not malodorous and often is described as having a “rice water” appearance (ie, in color and consistency, it resembles water that has been used to wash or cook rice). #medstudents #medschool #nurse #newborn #pregnant #pregnancy #doctor #hospital #premed #f4f #l4l #usmle #premedstudent #medicalstudents #medicalstudent #hospital #surgeons #surgeron #pediatria #surgery #stress #trauma #scrubs analgesic
