Weekly Article: Home O2 and Bronchiolitis

Originally posted by S. Teach

Hi guys.

Here is a thought-provoking article from the March 2012 issue of Pediatrics.  It comes from the PEM group at Denver (altitude 1600m) and reviews their experience with discharging hypoxic children with bronchiolitis on oxygen from the ED.  Of note, among those infants aged 1-18m with bronchiolitis sent home on oxygen (n=649, 15% of all infants seen with bronchiolitis), the readmission rate  was only 6% (95% CI: 4.3–7.9), compared to 4% for those sent home from the ED not on oxygen. The complication rate in the home oxygen group (ICU admissions and/or intubations) was 0% (95% CI 0-0.4%).

Shall we look at this for our well-appearing (and well-feeding!) infants with bronchiolitis? Does it matter that we practice at near 0m altitude?