Severe and near-fatal asthma in children and adolescents.

Abstract

Near-fatal asthma attacks occur rather frequently in asthmatic patients during childhood and adolescence. Major risk factors appear to be the severity and/or treatment difficulties, which may be related to the characteristics of the disease but also to mistaken or delayed diagnosis, poor compliance to treatment, and psychosocial problems. Indeed, difficult-to-control asthma symptoms can be caused by other disorders mimicking asthma, by unidentified exacerbating factors, by low compliance with the prescribed therapy, by inability to use the devices correctly (metered-dose inhalers, dry powder inhalers, nebulizers) and by low perceptiveness of airway obstruction. Children and adolescents with severe, difficult-to-treat asthma should receive specialist assessment and follow-up. Pharmacologic intervention should be combined with a detailed education and action plan, designed to get the disease under control but also to meet patient' and parents desires.

• Authors: L Fregonese, M Silvestri, F Sabatini, A C Defilippi, G A Rossi
• Journal: Monaldi archives for chest disease = Archivio Monaldi per le malattie del torace (Monaldi Arch Chest Dis) Vol. 56 Issue 5 Pg. 423-8 (Oct 2001) ISSN: 1122-0643 [Print] Italy
• PMID: 11887500 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Review)

Topics

• Adolescent
• Asthma (diagnosis, mortality, therapy)
• Child
• Humans
• Severity of Illness Index