Characteristics of infants hospitalized with bronchiolitis at University Hospital of Split between 2011 and 2015

Abstract

The aim was to determine and analyze clinical and epidemiological characteristics of infants treated at University Hospital of Splitfrom 2011 to 2015 with the diagnosis of bronchiolitis. Bronchiolitis is an acute lower respiratory tract infection common in earlychildhood. The most frequent etiologic agent is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) found in 60% to 80% of cases. Coughing, wheezingand impaired nutrition are the major symptoms. Medical records of children under the age of one year who were hospi talized atUniversity Hospital of Split due to bronchiolitis between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. Atotal of 560 infants were hospitalized during the 5-year period, out of them 340 were males. The most frequent symptoms were nasalcongestion, followed by wheezing, fever >38 °C, and crackles. Rapid antigen test for RSV was conducted in 193 infants and waspositive in 134 (69.4%) cases. Bronchodilators were administered in a vast majority of infants (74.5%), whereas inhaled corticosteroidswere used in 24.6% and racemic adrenaline in 14.1% of infants. Additional oxygen therapy was required only in 5% of cases.Study results confi rmed the greater incidence of bronchiolitis in boys and the mean duration of hospital stay was 7.6±3.3 days. Antibiotictherapy was administered in 85.2% of infants, which is considerably higher than in other published studies. Therefore, additional eff ort should be invested to lower antibiotic administration.Key words: infant; bronchiolitis; therapeutics; population characteristics