id="para1">Tracheomalacia, a disorder of the large airways where the trachea is deformed or malformed during respiration, is commonly seen in tertiary paediatric practice. It is associated with a wide spectrum of respiratory symptoms from life-threatening recurrent apnoea to common respiratory symptoms such as chronic cough and wheeze. Current practice following diagnosis of tracheomalacia includes medical approaches aimed at reducing associated symptoms of tracheomalacia, ventilation modalities of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP), and surgical approaches aimed at improving the calibre of the airway (airway stenting, aortopexy, tracheopexy).
id="para2">To evaluate the efficacy of medical and surgical therapies for children with intrinsic (primary) tracheomalacia.
id="para4">The Cochrane Airways Group searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), the Cochrane Airways Group's Specialized Register, Medline and Embase databases. The Cochrane Airways Group performed the latest searches in March 2012.
id="para5">All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of therapies related to symptoms associated with primary or intrinsic tracheomalacia.
id="para6">Two reviewers extracted data from the included study independently and resolved disagreements by consensus.
id="para7">We included one RCT that compared nebulized recombinant human deoxyribonuclease (rhDNase) with placebo in 40 children with airway malacia and a respiratory tract infection. We assessed it to be a RCT with ...