Application of hypertonic saline in children with acute bronchitis

Introduction. Cough is the most common manifestation of respiratory infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract and indicates impaired mucociliary clearance. The cause of cough must be determined to choose the management tactics for children with cough. The most commonly used mucoactive drugs liquefy sputum as a result of a direct action of the components on the tracheobronchial secretion and/or mucosa of the respiratory tract. Given the mucoactive effect of hypertonic salines, we conducted an open clinical study of the effectiveness of 3% hypertonic saline with hyaluronic acid in acute bronchitis in children. Aim of the study . To evaluate the clinical effect of 3% hypertonic saline with hyaluronic acid in acute bronchitis in children. Materials and methods . Clinical efficacy and safety of 3% hypertonic saline with hyaluronic acid in 50 patients aged 3 to 12 years old with acute bronchitis were evaluated in the dynamics on the 1st, 3rd, 7th days of treatment with the score assessment of symptoms (cough, stuffy nose, auscultation data) and an indication of adverse events (if any). Results. Improvement of condition was noted in most patients by the 3rd day of therapy (mean score 1.88 ± 0.3), temperature normalized in all patients, manifestations of rhinitis decreased. By the 5th day of treatment, the intensity of cough did not exceed 1 point in all patients (0.7 ± 0.14 points). According to the patient’s diary data, by the 7th day of treatment 74% of the children had no cough. On the 7th day of treatment, some children had a rare residual cough (0.36 ± 0.06 points), minor rhinitis (0.16 ± 0.1 points). No rales were heard in the lungs in all patients, rigid breathing was heard in 11 patients (mean score 0.22 ± 0.05). Conclusions. The conducted study demonstrated that 3% hypertonic saline with hyaluronic acid is an effective drug in the treatment of cough in acute bronchitis in children.