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Letters to the Editor Indian Pediatrics 2000;37: 1289. |
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Consensus Guidelines on Management of Childhood Asthma in India |
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A group of asthmatic children cannot be categorized in any grade when we plan long term management(1). These children need daily medication for a short period of days or months (precipitated by season or infection) and are perfectly normal during next few months. Should we use preventive medications in them? Aarti U. Sathaye,
It is well known that mild intermittent asthma can exacerbate to different degrees of severity and then for that phase the exacerbation has to be treated beginning for a step higher than the severity grading of the exacerbation. Thus, these patients would need preventive therapy for that period. For children where only seasonal symptoms occur for 4-8 weeks in a year and lung functions stay normal for rest of the year, preventive therapy is indicated. Cromolyn sodium can be started about 4-6 weeks before the onset of "allergic" season and carried through the season. Rescue therapy is given as and when needed. Those children known not to respond to cromolyn should be given inhaled glucocorticoids. These can be started about 7-10 days before the onset of the season and carried on through the season. Lata Kumar,
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