1 Children's Hospital at Stanford 520 Willow Road Palo Alto, California 94304
I would like to submit some questions and comments on Drs. Bierman and Pierson's protocol for the management of status asthmaticus published in the August issue of Pediatrics
(1) Is every child admitted to the hospital who does not respond to epinephrine injections (how many? frequency?)? Of the patients who are admitted, are all of them given intravenously administered corticosteroids as was suggested by the protocol? It would seem more desirable to try to break the asthma attack in the outpatient clinic by the use of aerosolized sympathomimetics, oxygen, and intravenously administered aminophylline in order to avoid frequent, costly hospitalizations and reliance on corticosteroids.