RESUMO
The study included 28 infants with infectious gastroenteritis who evolved with disturbances of coagulation and in whom laboratory tests were practiced by micromethods through capillary puncture. The most frequently seen abnormality was a combination of vitamin K dependent factors deficiency with thrombocytopenia. Another observation in our study is that hypofibrinogenemia in infants with infectious gastroenteritis is not always secondary to disseminated intravascular coagulation. A decrease in fibrinogen in these cases is explained by a lack in synthesis of this factor in infants with malnutrition since out of 16 malnourished infants, 75% evolved with hypofibrinogenemia, while eutrophic infants evolved with normal fibrinogen. The disseminated intravascular coagulation syndrome was seen more frequently in patients with infectious gastroenteritis complicated with septicemia and shock, 57% of the patients did not show manifestations of bleeding nor of thrombosis which justifies in these cases a systematic investigation of the coagulation mechanism.