Abstract

Nearly all antibiotics can cause diarrhoea.1 In most instances the cause of diarrhoea is not clear.2 In some, infection with Clostridium difficile is responsible; in others there is a drug-specific mechanism, such as the inactivation of lipase by tetracycline, the binding of bile acids by neomycin or the acceleration of gut transit by erythromycin. This article discusses infection with C. difficile.