Volume 9, Issue 8: Acute Bronchiolitis

Acute Bronchiolitis – it’ll take your breath away

You are on standby on a bitterly cold January morning, all of a sudden, control comes through on the radio: “… a 9 month old girl with breathing difficulties”. On arrival you examine the patient and your crewmate starts to prepare some salbutamol but you are not convinced this is the best course of action…

CPD Benefit

Bronchiolitis is a viral infection, the most common of the “serious” childhood respiratory illnesses and 90% of patients are aged between 1 and 9 months. This article explains the pathophysiology of the infection and how to examine the child and make a diagnosis. It also gives guidance on how best to manage these patients including appropriate treatment, reaching a decision on whether to discharge or convey and safety netting advice. This will enable prehospital clinicians to make the best possible assessment and treatment decisions.

Assessment Answers and References

You can check your answers to the quiz and download the references for this article by clicking the links below:

Standby CPD Volume 9 – Assessment Answers

Standby CPD – Vol. 9 No. 8 – References