ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Dexamethasone intramuscular injection and oral prednisolone have been known to be effective in the treatment of croup. The aim of this study was to determine whether nebulized budesonide leads to clinically important improvement in respiratory symptoms within four hours for child with mild to moderate croup. METHODS: Patients with croup visited to the department of Pediatrics, Han Il General Hospital from March 1995 to June 1996 were enrolled in this study. Patients were eligible if their age was between six months and six years, their total croup score was higher than 2 after breathing humidified air for at least 15 minutes. 28 patients were treated with 2mg (8ml) of nebulized budesonide and 8 patients with 8ml of normal saline as control group over the 30 minutes. Croup score, heart rate and respiratory rate were then assessed hourly for up to four hours. Side effects were also observed. RESULTS: 1) The croup score was improved from 3.6+/-0.8 to 1.9+/-0.9 at 4 hours after the nebulized budesonide treatment. 2) No significant differences in changes in heart rate were observed until 4 hours after both the nebulized budesonide group and control group. 3) Significant decrease in respiratory rate was observed at 4 hours after the nebulized budesonide group. 4) No specific side effects were noted during and 4 hours after the nebulized budesonide treatment. CONCLUSIONS: We concluded that nebulized budesonide leads to a prompt and important clinical improvement in children with mild to moderate croup without any specific side effects.