Treatment Of Asthma In Children
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and in recent years this health problem has been increasing. Therefore, the consumption of corresponding drugs is also increasing. That is a challenge for the entire health system. In this article, you will learn more about this disease and, more importantly, how to treat asthma in children.
What exactly is asthma?
Asthma is a chronic disease. This is an inflammatory disease of the respiratory tract that occurs like a seizure. It is typically characterized by wheezing and coughing. There is also a feeling of tightness in the chest, shortness of breath and shortness of breath. There is an increased sensitivity of the bronchi to various stimuli. The symptoms often appear at night and in the early hours of the morning.
The most common symptoms in asthma are:
- Gasping breath
- shortness of breath
- to cough
- Chest tightness
- Acute narrowing of the airways
- Airway sensitivity (bronchial hyperreactivity)
- Inflammation of the airways
Treatment of asthma in children
The treatment of asthma is usually divided into two broad blocks. On the one hand, there is the treatment of acute attacks. And on the other hand, there is long-term treatment. The main goals of treating asthma in children are as follows:
- One tries to reduce or eliminate the chronic symptoms.
- An acute crisis should be prevented
- and they want to prevent the use of drugs as much as possible. This also avoids undesirable side effects.
The main drugs used to treat asthma in children are:
- Bronchodilators to relieve symptoms.
- Anti-inflammatory drugs, used to control the disease.
What to do in the event of an acute asthma attack
The main points of an acute crisis are: The most important thing is to treat hypoxemia. So you have to do something about the lack of oxygen in the arterial blood. Because that’s the first thing to do when a child has an asthma attack.
You have to determine how high the oxygen saturation is in the arterial blood. A special device is used for this: a so-called pulse oximeter. Depending on the outcome, the crisis can be divided into different degrees of severity :
- Slight : O2 saturation higher than 94%.
- Medium : O2 saturation between 91 and 94%.
- Severe : O2 saturation below 91%.
Hypoxemia is when the oxygen saturation in the arterial blood falls below 91% or 60 mmHg. In these cases the child should be taken to the emergency room; and also if there is a risk of complications or a history of high risk factors. Likewise if there is no response to the treatment.
In the event of an acute crisis, the first option for treatment is inhalation of drugs such as beta-2 sympathomimetics. These are administered via a metered dose aerosol or powder with the help of inhalers or powder inhalers. The most commonly used drug is salbutamol. Other options could be ipratropium bromide or corticosteroids.
All patients with an oxygen saturation of less than 94% require additional oxygen. Therefore, they should be referred to a hospital for further monitoring and treatment. You can also carry out the necessary examinations there.
Long-term treatment for asthma in children
Of course, when treating this chronic condition, one must consider the age of the children above all else. In general, in addition to pharmacological treatment, the option of immunotherapy is considered. In addition, it is also a matter of giving patients and families special training in dealing with the disease and crises.
As I said before: When treating asthma in children, it is very important to avoid the long-term use of medication as much as possible. Therefore, one should start with a basic treatment. So you can then gradually increase the appropriate dose of medication as needed.
The most common drugs used in this treatment are : inhaled corticosteroids such as budesonide or fluticasone. It is also important to control the dose of steroids. Otherwise it can lead to undesirable side effects. If the dose needs to be increased, it is often preferred to combine it with bronchodilators.
In addition, it should be kept in mind that in children under 3 years of age, most asthmatic episodes are due to viral infections. Then the symptoms go away regardless of the treatment. So in these cases one should look carefully and not give the child unnecessary medication that can cause more harm than good.
