Publication:

Antibiotics in children with bronchial asthma

Background This study was conducted to determine if oral antibiotics started at presentation reduce the duration of acute exacerbations of bronchial asthma by comparing the durations of mild to moderate exacerbations of asthma managed with or without antibiotics in children below 12 years.

Methods In this systematic trial, we allocated the eligible children to antibiotic group (who also received standard of care and control (the standard of care) group (n=40 in each group) and compared the duration of acute asthma exacerbation between the two groups.

Results The mean difference of duration of mild and moderate exacerbations between the antibiotic and control group was 4.76 hours (95% Confidence Interval (CI) of -36.76 to 28.84) which was found not to be statistically significant (p value- 0.482).

Conclusions There was no significant reduction in the duration of mild to moderate exacerbations of asthma in children below 12 years by the administration of empirical antibiotics.