Hypertonic 3% Saline in Comparison with 0.9% (Normal) Saline in Treatment of Acute Bronchiolitis

Background Bronchiolitis is the commonest cause of lower respiratory tract infection in infant. Respiratory syncytial virus is the commonest cause of bronchiolitis. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of nebulized 3% hypertonic saline and salbutamol in the treatment of acute bronchiolitis in comparison with nebulized 0.9% saline and salbutamol. Materials and Methods A prospective case second multicenter study was done at two pediatric tertiary centers at the period from 1st of December 2014 to 31 of March 2015. A total of 100 previously well infant and children of age 1-24 months with clinical diagnoses of bronchiolitis who were admitted to the hospital were included. They were divided into two groups, the study group received 4 ml of nebulized hypertonic 3% saline (for 14 days), and second group received 4 ml of nebulized normal 0.9% saline (for 14 days), each co-administer with 0.5 ml salbutamol. Results All patients with acute bronchiolitis having similar baseline characteristic, mean age 4.9 + Standard deviation (SD) months, male gender constitutes 68% of the patients and the majority (67%) of the cases were below 6 months. The mean of clinical severity score at admission was 6.4 for normal saline (NS) group and 6.6 for hypertonic 3% saline (HS) group. The mean length of hospital stay of normal saline group = 4.3 + Standard deviation (SD) day and for hypertonic saline group was = 4.7 + Standard deviation (SD) day. Conclusion We didn’t find any advantage of hypertonic 3% saline over 0.9% normal saline in terms of length of hospital stay and clinical severity score.