AN OUTPATIENT SURVEY OF WHEEZING PAEDIATRIC PATIENTS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

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AN OUTPATIENT SURVEY OF WHEEZING PAEDIATRIC PATIENTS IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Journal Title: Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences - Year 2018, Vol 7, Issue 14

Abstract

BACKGROUND Wheezing is a common condition in paediatric practice. It can be defined as a musical sound, high-pitched and continuous, emitting from the chest during breath exhalation. Although, almost 50% of children experiences wheeze in the first 6 years of life, only 40% of them will report continued wheezing symptoms after childhood. During the act of inspiration air enters the alveoli through larynx, trachea and bronchi and during expiration in the opposite direction. Vibrations caused by the passage or movement of air through these structures results in the production of respiratory sound. Expiratory thoracic muscles compress the lower chest, abdominal muscles contract pushing diaphragm up in an attempt to squeeze the air out of the lung resulting in raised intrapulmonary pressure. The air now escapes under high pressure through the narrowed bronchial lumen producing cooy sound, so an outpatient survey was done to evaluate the common causes of wheezing in paediatric patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS An outpatient survey of wheezing was conducted from 1st October 2017 to 31st December 2017. During this period study comprised of 150 patients of age group of 2 months to 14 years, randomly selected by simple random sampling method [Lottery method] who reported with conditions giving rise to wheezing. Informed consent was obtained from the parents or guardians of the paediatric patients. These children were investigated after taking family, dietetic, allergic and helminthic history. Most of the mothers brought their infants with the complaint of noisy breathing, but when examined many of them had either transmitted throat sounds or there was nasal block without any lung signs. On an average, about 15 - 20 cases per week were coming to an outpatient department with this complaint. These cases were investigated relevantly and followed upto 3 months. Obtained data were arranged according to characteristics and were expressed as a number and percentage of respondents and were analysed using the SPSS Version 17 software. RESULTS Most common aetiology is of bronchial asthma in 85 patients. Maximum patients of bronchial asthma (65%), worm infestation (68%) and tropical eosinophilia (50%) were in 5 - 9 years’ age group. Maximum patients in case of bronchiolitis were in 7 - 12 months’ age group. Among 85 cases of bronchial asthma 55 were male patients and 30 were female and among 15 cases of bronchiolitis 7 cases were male and 8 cases were female. Among 22 cases of worm infestation 14 were male and 8 were female and among 10 cases of tropical eosinophilia 6 were male and 4 were female. CONCLUSION This outpatient survey revealed wheezing or noisy breath as one of the common symptoms with which children are coming to outpatient. The present study found apart from bronchial asthma, acute respiratory infections, worm infestations and tropical eosinophilia constituted large percentage of cases. Wheezing is a symptom of many diseases, the cause of which must be thoroughly investigated for proper management of the case. Because of the small size of bronchi and abundancy of lymphoid tissue and relatively frequent infections, allergic disorders during childhood, the airway is more prone to obstruction resulting in difficulty not only during inspiration, but much more so in expiration.

Authors and Affiliations

Gunjan Kela Mehrotra, Parul Jain, Aayush Gupta, Swati Mulye

Keywords

Wheezing Asthma Bronchiolitis.

EP ID EP414310
DOI 10.14260/jemds/2018/383
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