EFFICACY OF HYPERTONIC SALINE NEBULIZATION IN CHILDREN WITH ACUTE BRONCHIOLITIS.

Background; A substantial proportion of children will experience at least one episode with bronchiolitis, and as much as 2-3% of all children was hospitalized with bronchiolitis during their first year of life. Bronchiolitis is the most common reason for hospitalization of children in many countries, challenging both economy, area and staffing in paediatric departments. Objective; To Compare outcome of hypertonic saline versus normal saline in children with acute bronchiolitis.  Material and Methods; All children fulfilling inclusion criteria were registered in this study from Emergency Department of Pediatric Medicine, Nishtar Hospital, Multan. In Group A, each child was nebulized with 4 ml of 3 % of hypertonic saline while group B was nebulized with 4 ml of 0.9% saline solution for 3 times at interval of 20 minutes. Results; Of these 302 study cases, 178 (58.9 %) were male patients while 124 (41.1 %) were female patients. Mean age of our study cases was 7.60 ± 6.19 months (ranging from 2 months to 24 months). Mean age of the male patients was noted to be 5.71 ± 3.22 months while that female patients was 10.32 ± 8.14 months (p=0.000). Mean baseline clinical severity score was 7.15 ± 1.63 while 228 (75.5%) had baseline severity score up to 8. Of these 302 study cases, need for hospitalization was noted in 122 (40.4%). Need for hospitalization in group A was 41 (27.2%) while in group B it was 81 (53.6%). (p = 0.000). Conclusion; Our study results support the use hypertonic saline solution nebulization in children with acute bronchiolitis as compared with normal saline nebulization. Hypertonic solution was found to be more effective in improving clinical severity score and reducing need of hospitalization significantly. All clinicians treating such patients should employ hypertonic solution to get desired clinical outcomes. Keywords; Hypertonic solution, acute bronchiolitis, normal saline. DOI : 10.7176/JMPB/54-16 Publication date : April 30 th 2019