Bronchitis-Complication, Treatment And Recovery

Complication

Apart from bronchitis, neither acute nor wheezy bronchitis is usually dangerous. Acute bronchitis may, however, be parents at the same time as acute larun-gotracheitis (inflammation of the voice box and windpipe) or may progress and develop into pneumonia.

Treatment

Sometimes an antihistamine or mild sedative is prescribed to be used particularly at night. Antibiotics are widely used, but often ineffective as acute bronchitis is often a viral infection or allergy. If wheezy is the main symptoms then the doctor may suspect that asthma is playing a part in the illness. If so, he may prescribe one of the many extremely effective drugs used to relax the muscles surrounding the bronchi and bronchi-oles, thus widening them and making breathing easier. The bronchi most widely used of these drugs are salbutamol and theophylline, given in the from of tablets, capsules or medicine. In other children, drug such as salbutamol are frequently given via a pocket aerosol spray. Children under the age of four find these sprays difficult to manage, so some family doctors and most hospitals use electrically driven nebulizers. In severe cases of wheezy bronchitis, steroid hormones may be usually prescribed in tabled from, but if the child is in hospital the first 48 hours of treatment, may be given intravenously. If there is evidence of a collapsed area of lungs, or of pneumonia, physiotherapy may be advised. This involves positioning the child so that main air tube from each area of lungs slopes downwards in turn. The chest is then vibrate and tapped to loosen phlegm and held clear it from the lungs.

Recovery

Acute bronchitis is not likely to be a repeated problem unless parents smoke a good deal in the house. Wheezy bronchitis may well be recurrent, and many of these children will eventually turn out to have asthma. Making the correct diagnosis is very important as in this condition anti-asthmatic drugs are extremely effective, whereas antibiotics and cough medicines are not. Asthma should be considered especially if either parent, grandparents, brothers or sisters have asthma, eczema or hay fever. Some doctors prefer not to use the world asthma: they fear it will distress parents because it implies a long-term problem. In fact, parents should not dread this diagnosis as the method of treatment currently available are remarkably effective.

Cough-Symptoms,Complication & Treatment

Symptoms

Noisy, dry, barking cough are common and not usually serious. They often stat during a cold and are more persistent at night when children lie down. Sometimes, often start during a cold and are at night, a spell of dry coughing may be the  start of an attack of asthma. Later, the child may get wheezy, although in many children coughing rather than wheezing is the symptom of asthma. A less noisy, rattling cough which leads to sputum being coughed up or swallowed, occur with bronchitis or pneumonia if part of the lung has collapsed. Such a cough also occurs when a foreign body gets into the lung and is also a symptom of cystic fibrosis.

Complications

Where the coughing is caused by an inhaled foreign body, this can lead to severe bouts of coughing and, if the problem is acute, the child may go blue and start choking. Even if this does not happen, however, the incident may be followed by a high temperature a few days later. If this happen it means that part of the lung has become infected. A young baby who catches whooping cough can become very ill indeed. Nearly all deaths from whooping cough occur during the first year of life. The baby may develop lung complication, inhale vomit after a bout of coughing or suffer from insufficient food if frequent bouts of coughing are followed by vomiting. Any child who develops a croupy cough should get medical treatment at once.

Treatment

As far as possible, the cause of the cough should be treated, not the cough itself. Antibiotics are used for treating infections such as sinusitis, bronchitis, tonsillitis and pneumonia. Nose drops, decongestants and antihistamines can be used to treat allergies that cause runny noses. Special drugs are necessary for asthma. A foreign body in the lungs needs urgent medical attention and a habit cough needs understanding of the child’s problem, not medicine to stop the cough. The majority of cough will clear up as soon as the cause disappears or is successfully treated. Coughs caused by colds are quite normal and will keep on happening all through childhood.