Children with severe asthma frequently receive continuous beta-agonist therapy in the pediatric intensive care unit, but longer therapy duration confers risks that include tachycardia, diastolic hypotension, and lactatemia.In a randomized trial, BPAP did not reduce duration of continuous albuterol therapy compared with sham BPAP in children with acute asthma exacerbations.Researchers stopped the trial early for futility after finding no meaningful treatment difference.
Children with acute asthma exacerbations who received bilevel positive airway pressure (BPAP) in the emergency department (ED) needed continuous albuterol therapy for a similar duration as those receiving sham BPAP with minimal pressure, a randomized trial showed.
At the time of a prespecified interim analysis with 50% enrollment, those in the BPAP group received a mean 8.3 hours of continuous albuterol therapy compared with 8.7 hours in the control group (P=0.84), reported Patrick T. Wilson, MD, MPH, and colleagues at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine in Aurora, in JAMA Network Open.
There were also no statistical differences in pediatric respiratory assessment measure (PRAM) or vital signs over time, length of stay, or adverse events observed between the two study arms.
