A NEONATAL SEPSIS WITH RECURRENT ACIDOSIS

Key words: Tubular acidosis, Sepsis, Renal lithiasis, Anion gap

The paper describes the diagnostic difficulties occurred in a case of tubular acidosis, which rapidly developed into an acute diarrhoea due to Rotavirus showing a concomitant sepsis by Staphylococcus, in a new-born child. The therapy, oriented towards the treatment of the sepsis and to the substitutive correction of the dehydration and of the acidosis (initially supposed to be secondary), resulted only temporarily effective. The unjustified presence of acidosis, the appearance of renal lithiasis and the evaluation of the anion gap rapidly re-oriented the diagnosis towards the base disorder: a tubular-pathology with bicarbonate loss (type 1 distal tubular acidosis).