Clinical case of atypical presentation of Clostridium difficile infection combined with enterobiasis in a 14-year-old child

Clostridium difficile infection is currently a serious medical and epidemiological problem due to a significant and steady increase in the incidence of this pathology. An important causal factor in the increased incidence of Clostridium difficile infection is a widespread and often uncontrolled use of antibiotic therapy. The difficulty in diagnosing Clostridium difficile lies in a wide range of clinical manifestations of this infection, from mild diarrhea to pseudomembranous colitis, toxic megacolon, colon perforation, and multiple organ failure, resulting in a high mortality rate and prolonged length of stay in intensive care units. This article presents a clinical case of Clostridium difficile-associated infection in a 14-year-old boy. An important diagnostic feature of this case is the chronic course of infection, the clinical picture being dominated by pain, hyperthermia, and intoxication without diarrhea, as well as the presence of enterobiasis. This clinical example shows that Clostridium difficile-associated infection does not always present with diarrhea. The etiology of the disease in this case was confirmed not only by the detection of specific Clostridium difficile toxins in the patient’s stool samples, but also by clear positive dynamics with the administration of etiotropic therapy. This article describes the stages of differential diagnostic search and the choice of treatment tactics for Clostridium difficile infection. Key words: clostridium infection, children