New Discovery Helps Babies Breathe Better

A national study designed and co-led by an Alberta Children’s Hospital pediatric emergency physician has found a better way to treat babies with serious lung infections, reducing hospitalization rates by more than a third.

“Any time we can make a significant difference in the number of kids who need to be hospitalized, it’s exciting,” says Dr. David Johnson, a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health.

Johnson collaborated with principal author Amy Plint, MD, of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the University of Ottawa, and several others from eight children’s hospitals across Canada to study 800 babies seeking help from emergency departments for bronchiolitis. Their clinical trial found that combining two common drugs – epinephrine and dexamethasone -  cut hospital admissions by 35 percent.

“This is the largest bronchiolitis study ever published,” says Johnson, “and our results open the door to finding better ways to treat children with other serious respiratory illnesses.”

Bronchiolitis is an inflammation of tiny airways in the lungs which usually affects babies under the age of two, causing coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing. An estimated 35 in 1000 babies are hospitalized as a result every year. The costs to the Canadian medical system are considerable: estimated at more than $23 million annually fifteen years ago when admissions were half of what they are today.

Results of the clinical trial were published in the May 14, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and community donations from the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation.