Experience of Using a Combined Expectorant in Community-acquired Pneumonia in Preschool Children

Abstract

Acute pneumonia in preschool children often requires the use of combined drugs that affect cough. One of them is a combination of bromhexine, guaifenesin and salbutamol, which has proven itself in school-age children and adults. However, there is insufficient data on the use of such combination in children.The objective: of our observation was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of Askoril Expectorant therapy in children 2–7 years with acute community-acquired pneumonia.Materials and methods. We have summarized the experience of treatment of 30 children aged 2–7 years, suffering from community-acquired pneumonia of moderate severity. Ascoril Expectorant was added to antibiotic therapy for 9–12 days. The general condition of patients, severity of cough, shortness of breath, sputum secretion, monitoring of side effects, heart rate, systolic and diastolic pressure were measured. Tolerability of the drug was studied according to clinical observations and using a ten-point visual-analog scale.Results. All children before treatment had difficulty coughing up sputum. By the 2-3rd day of treatment, the cough became moist. Symptoms of nocturnal cough disappeared on the 5th–6th day of treatment, daytime – significantly decreased by the 6th–7th day of observation. Clinical signs of focal changes in the lungs persisted in all patients on 3–5 days of combination therapy and were absent in most patients within 10 days of treatment. On the third day of treatment the intensity of cough decreased from 2.53 to 1.07 points (p<0.001). On the fifth day of treatment the intensity of cough decreased by 2.9 times compared with the data at the beginning of therapy, on the tenth day – by 5.9 times. Good tolerability (8–10 points) was observed in 43.3 % of children, in others – satisfactory. No child had poor tolerability.Conclusions. The inclusion in the complex treatment of patients with community-acquired pneumonia of the combined mucoactive drug Askoril Expectorant leads to rapid relief of the disease and the achievement of an effective mucoregulatory effect with good tolerability of the drug.