Gelatin tannate in pediatric infectious gastroenteritis

Acute gastroenteritis (AGE) causes impairment of the gastrointestinal mucus and epithelium. Adjuvant treatment to oral rehydration is recommended to shorten the duration of diarrhea. The objective of this review was to review and discuss the available evidence of gelatin tannate in the management of AGE in pediatrics. Data from MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, LILACS and grey literature were analyzed. Several trials performed in Turkey, Italy and Romania in overall 782 children showed that gelatin tannate decreased the duration of the diarrhea with a beneficial efficacy on stool consistency demonstrated already 12 hours after the start of its administration. Differences in favor of gelatin tannate were already apparent after 12 hours of administration. All trials showed beneficial outcomes, except the Polish study (72 children) which showed no difference between gelatin tannate and placebo in duration of diarrhea. In another trial testing a different tannate, diarrhea lasted for 2.0±0.27 days in the intervention group versus 3.75±0.30 days in the placebo group (P<0.001). The administration of gelatin tannate in combination with oral rehydration solution (ORS) was shown to be effective and of rapid onset in children presenting infectious AGE, showing a shortening of the diarrhea within ±24 hours. It would be of particular interest to test gelatin tannate in developing countries, since most data come from Eastern Europe.