[Cholestyramine in the treatment of refractory diarrhea of the newborn].

Eleven infants with severe protracted diarrhea were studied. All of them were treated with cholestyramine, 2 g/kg/day in three or four doses. Feces became normal in two to four days in ten out of eleven infants. Tolerance to cholestyramine was good. Fat balance was performed in five patients showing steatorrhea in all of them, ranging from 15 to 42%. Reduction in resin doses was followed by normal fat excretion. Three infants died. One of them did not show improvement with cholestyramine therapy and developed Salmonella typhimurium sepsis. The other two, even though they normalized their stools, died because of Salmonella typhimurium and bacteroides sepsis respectively.