Croup: IPPB and/or Racemic Epinephrine Therapy
1 Department of Pediatrics, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C. 20012
In 1975 Taussig and associates1 evaluated the use of intermittent positive-pressure breathing (IPPB) with racemic epinephrine in the treatment of croup. Apparently their untreated control group received neither racemic epinephrine nor IPPB although all patients received mist tent therapy with 30% to 40% oxygen. A statistically significant benefit was observed in the treated group. A previous controlled study evaluating the effectiveness of aerosol racemic epinephrine alone, without IPPB, failed to show a significant difference between treated patients and placebo (aerosolized saline)-treated controls.2




