Abstract

Introduction: Acute severe asthma presenting in the paediatric population is a medical emergency. The British Thoracic Society (BTS) recommends salbutamol as first line therapy. Intravenous (IV) aminophylline has been shown to be of clinical importance.

Methods: A systematic review of literature was conducted using Cochrane Library, MEDLINE and EMBASE. Using a PICO question, the authors compared clinical outcomes of salbutamol and intravenous aminophylline.

Results/Evidence synthesis: 3 studies were included in the review. They were a Cochrane review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and two RCTs. The studies demonstrated that IV aminophylline is as effective as salbutamol in the treatment of children with acute severe asthma in hospital.

Lay Summary/Conclusion: Either IV aminophylline or salbutamol can be used as first line therapy in acute severe asthma in the paediatric population.

Level of Evidence: 1.

Keywords: Salbutamol; Aminophylline; Asthma

References

1. Travers AH., et al. “Intravenous beta(2)-agonists versus intravenous aminophylline for acute asthma”. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 12 (2012): CD010256.
2. Hambleton G and MJ Stone. “Comparison of IV salbutamol with IV aminophylline in the treatment of severe, acute asthma in childhood”. Archives of Disease in Childhood5 (1979): 391-392.
3. Roberts G., et al. “Intravenous salbutamol bolus compared with an aminophylline infusion in children with severe asthma: a randomised controlled trial”. Thorax4 (2003): 306-310.

Citation

Citation: Agilinko Joshua and Agilinko Bertrand. “Comparison of Salbutamol and Intravenous Aminophylline in Acute Severe Asthma in the Paediatric Population". Acta Scientific Clinical Case Reports 1.9 (2020): 36-40.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Agilinko Joshua and Agilinko Bertrand. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.