[Side effects of antibiotic: diarrhea and Clostridium difficile infection.]

Antibiotics are some of the most frequently prescribed medications worldwide, but antibiotic therapy may disturb the colonization resistance of gut microbiota to pathogenic bacteria, resulting in a range of symptoms that include, most notably, diarrhea that occurs between 7% and 33% of adults and 66 and 80% in pediatric patients (median of 22%) who take antibiotics. The diverse class of antibiotics may damage the metabolic homeostasis and can alter the level of intestinal metabolites including amino acids, bile acids, glucose, short chain fatty acids through alteration in abundance of metabolically active bacteria. Clostridium difficile is the main cause of antibiotics associated diarrhea: 3rd generation Cephalosporin, Clyndamicin, 2nd and 4th generation Cephalosporines, Sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim, Quinolones, Penicillin combination show the strongest association with diarrhea.