Comparison of hypertonic-saline vs normal-saline nebulization in children with bronchiolitis.

Objective: To compare the efficacy of 3% hypertonic saline (HS) with normal saline (NS) in children with bronchiolitis, in term of change in clinical severity score and duration of hospital stay. Study Design: Randomized Controlled Trial. Setting: Department of Pediatrics, Central, Park Teaching Hospital, Lahore. Period: August 2018-January 2019. Method & Material: Sixty patients as per inclusion criteria, were randomly assigned into two groups. Group-A received nebulization with normal-saline (NS) and Group-B received nebulization with 3% hypertonic-Saline (HS). Data was collected regarding demographics, duration of illness, clinical severity score (CSS) as described by Wang et al., at time of presentation and after 24-hours of management as per assigned group, change in CSS after initial 24 hours of management, and total duration of hospitalization. Data was analyzed through SPSS-version-26. Paired sample t-test was applied to relate outcome of both the groups. Result: The principal outcome parameters studied were change in CSS and duration of hospital stay. Statistically nebulization with NS seems better than with HS with the p-value of 0.001 for both change in CSS after 24 hours and duration of hospital stay. Conclusion: Nebulization with normal saline has better impact on outcome of bronchiolitis, in terms of improving clinical severity score and hospital stay.