The Role of Hypertonic Saline in the Management of Bronchiolitis at Raparin Hospital

Background and objectives: Bronchiolitis is the prevailing acute respiratory ailment of significant severity among newborns and young children. The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of hypertonic saline 3% in treating acute bronchiolitis and its impact on the severity of cases admitted to the emergency department, in comparison to Salbutamol nebulization. Methods: A comparative, experimental, longitudinal study was conducted on 150 infants aged 1–24 months who were admitted to Raparin pediatric teaching hospital at emergency department with moderate to severe respiratory distress from November 2022 to May 2023. Two groups of patients were formed by age and severity. Using a nebulizer device, the two medication combinations (Salbutamol and hypertonic saline) were given to the patients in each of the two groups every six hours. Initial assessment was executed through taking vital signs on admission. Moreover, additional assessments were conducted before and following each nebulization for four times each day until the recovery and discharge. The length of recovery, hospital stay, duration of oxygen therapy, wheezing and oxygen saturation was compared between the two groups. Results: The study found that 32% of the Salbutamol group stayed 4 days and 18.7% of same group stayed ? 5 days in the hospital respectively, compared with 14.7% of the hypertonic group stayed in hospital for 4 days and 0% stayed ? 5 days in the hospital (p < 0.001). Furthermore, one day after treatment, around half (44%) of children treated with hypertonic saline had no wheeze, compared with 24% of children of the Salbutamol group (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The present study concluded that the role of Nebulized 3% Hypertonic Saline is significant in management of bronchiolitis.