Efficacy of montelukast in recurrent wheezing infants and small children

Abstract

Rationale Recurrent wheezing in infants and small children may be secondary to bronchial hyperreactivity induced by the infection with sincitial respiratory virus. Several data in the literature suggest the role of cysteinil-leukotriens in development of bronchial inflammation in wheezing secondary to viral infection. The authors study the efficacy of Montelukast in recurrent wheezing in infants and small children Methods The study included 40 children aged between 6 months and 3 years with postbronchiolar recurrent wheezing. The study was double-blind, randomized, placebo-control. Patients were divided into 2 groups: study group (20 patients) treated with Montelukast, 5 mg/day, for 3 months and controls (20 patients) treated with placebo for 3 months. The follow-up period was of 6 months. The efficacy parameter was the frequency of bronchoobstructive episodes during the follow-up period as compared with the previous 6 months before the study Results In children treated with Montelukast we noticed a significant reducing of bronchoobstructive episodes during the follow-up period as compared with 6 months before therapy (3.79 ± 2.41 versus 1.25 ± 1.41; p=0.001). Controls presented fewer wheezing episodes (3.04 ± 1.0 versus 2.41 ± 1.5), but the differences are not statistically significant (p=0.067). Similar results were obtained after we excluded from the 2 study groups the patients with markers of atopy: significant reducing (p=0.012) of bronchoobstructive episodes in patients treated with Montelukast and no influence on the frequency of wheezing episodes in those treated with placebo (p=0.39). Conclusions Funding: Self-funded