The Use of Hypertonic Saline Inhalation in Acute Bronchiolitis in Children

Background: One medication that has promising results in managing acute bronchiolitis is nebulized hypertonic saline (HS). This work aimed to assess the role of HS in decreasing hospital stay in infants with acute viral bronchiolitis in Assiut University Children's Hospital.Methods: This randomized clinical trial was carried out on 75 patients aged from two to 23 months old. 47 cases were male, and 28 were female, and they were diagnosed with bronchiolitis. Patients were divided into three equal groups; Group 1 was treated with a nebulized bronchodilator (salbutamol) and normal saline, Group 2 was treated with a nebulized bronchodilator (salbutamol) and HS, and Group 3 was treated with nebulized HS only.Results: The three groups of children had the same pertinent baseline clinical characteristics. All groups had a highly statistically significant difference regarding the duration of illness before study entry (days). There was no significant difference between all groups regarding clinical severity scores before treatment, and there was a significant decrease in clinical severity scores after treatment among the three groups. There was a statistically significant difference between all groups regarding the length of hospital stay, whereas there was no significant difference between groups I and II. There was a highly significant decrease among Group II than Group I, and there was a highly significant decrease among Group III than Group I.Conclusions: Nebulization with HS reduces the length of stay in the hospital and decreases the clinical severity score in children hospitalized with viral bronchiolitis.