Inhaled Hypertonic Saline Use in the Emergency Department to Treat Acute Viral Bronchiolitis

January 5, 2015 updated by: Mateus Deckers Leme, University of Sao Paulo

Study of the Effect of Inhaled 3% Hypertonic Saline Compared With Normal Saline (0,9%) for the Treatment of Acute Viral Bronchiolitis in a Short Stay Ward

Acute viral bronchiolitis is an extremely common childhood disease, responsible for approximately 17% of childhood admissions to hospital per year, with an annually cost that reaches U$ 500 million.

Despite being a well known disease among pediatricians, there are few, if any, effective treatment options apart from oxygen supplementation and adequate hydration.

The purpose of this study is to determine wether nebulized hypertonic saline (3%) is more effective than normal saline (0,9%) when used in repeated doses during the first 24 hours of in-hospital treatment.

Study Overview

Status

Terminated

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Acute viral bronchiolitis is a lower airway infection, caused manly by Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Near 1% of children up to 2 years of age get it with sufficient severity to warrant hospital admission, with an annual cost of about U$ 500 million in the US, superior, for instance, than cystic fibrosis annual cost.

Despite the physiopathology and clinical course being well known among pediatricians, few therapeutical options other than adequate hydration and oxygen supplementation have proven to be effective Corticosteroids are not effective and bronchodilators are controversial, and treatment is still mostly empiric and lacking evidence.

In the last few years, there has been a growing interest in the use of nebulized hypertonic saline (HS) as a promising approach. The rational is that HS would help reducing edema and mucus viscosity, enhancing its rheologic properties. Recent studies suggest that HS could reduce up to 1 day (25%) of time until discharge in admitted patients. In the Emergency Department, HS was not superior to other forms of treatment, but these studies lack power and similarities to draw further conclusions. Also, time of treatment and ideal interval between doses are not known as yet.

To our knowledge, few if any studies have assessed patients with an intermediary (up to 24h) time of stay, namely a short stay ward attached to an emergency department. Thus, we have endeavoured to determine if repeated doses of nebulized HS are superior to nebulized normal saline (NS) during the first 24 hour of treatment, when considered: rate of admission, time until discharge, time until attain discharge criteria, and rate of readmission after discharge.

Furthermore, most studies use HS associated to a bronchodilator, because of a theoretical possibility that HS alone could induce bronchoconstriction and worsen respiratory symptoms. However, recent studies have shown that HS use without bronchodilators have not caused any worsening of symptoms in bronchiolitis patients. Therefore, we propose to study the effect of HS alone, without the adding of bronchodilators, which would minimize bias in the treatment group.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

32

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Brazil
    • SP
      • Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, 05508-000
        • University Hospital of Sao Paulo University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

No older than 1 year (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age < 12 months
  • Clinical diagnosis of bronchiolitis (viral respiratory disease and wheezing)
  • First episode of wheezing in life
  • Moderate respiratory distress, defined as 2 of the following: Sat <93%, respiratory rate >60 and/or RDAI score >4

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Previous episodes of wheezing in history
  • Use of bronchodilators, corticosteroids or antibiotics in the 24 hours prior to admission or at any time during treatment.
  • Other clinical conditions such as: prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, cystic fibrosis, cardiac disease or immunodeficiencies.
  • detection of alveolar infiltrates suggestive of pneumonia in radiologic examination
  • respiratory impairment requiring mechanical ventilation on arrival to hospital.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Quadruple

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Normal Saline
Patients will receive inhaled normal saline, initially with a 2 hour interval, and clinical evaluation prior to each inhalation. When they attain sat>94% AND respiratory rate <60 AND RDAI score <4, the interval between inhalations will be changed to 4 hours. If they maintain these criteria for a whole 4 hour interval, they are discharged. If they do not improve enough to be discharged in 24 hours from the first inhalation, they are considered as admitted to hospital.
Radiation: Chest X-Ray
Other: Respiratory virus screening test
Immunofluorescence analysis of nasal aspirate
Experimental: Hypertonic Saline
Patients will receive inhaled Hypertonic Saline 3%, initially with a 2 hour interval, and clinical evaluation prior to each inhalation. When they attain sat>94% AND respiratory rate <60 AND RDAI score <4, the interval between inhalations will be changed to 4 hours. If they maintain these criteria for a whole 4 hour interval, they are discharged. If they do not improve enough to be discharged in 24 hours from the first inhalation, they are considered as admitted to hospital.
Radiation: Chest X-Ray
Other: Respiratory virus screening test
Immunofluorescence analysis of nasal aspirate
Drug: Hypertonic Saline
Sodium Chloride 3% solution, previously prepared in 5 mL syringes.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Rate of Admission
Time Frame: 24 hours
Patients staying longer than 24h are considered to be admitted to ward.
24 hours
Time to Attain Discharge Criteria
Time Frame: 24 hours
Discharge criteria are: Room air saturation >94% AND respiratory rate < 60 AND Respiratory Distress Assessment Instrument (RDAI) score inferior than 4, maintained over a 4 hour period.
24 hours

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Time to Discharge
Time Frame: 24 hours
Actual time to discharge was considered of secondary importance as it can be influenced by individual considerations like patient age or time of the day.
24 hours
Rate of Readmission After Discharge
Time Frame: 5 days
The mere attendance to the Emergency Department will not be isolately considered, as it may be due to a scheduled reevaluation.
5 days
Incidence of Adverse Effects
Time Frame: 24 hours
Any adverse effects directly attributable to treatment shall be noted. Mere lack of improve or worsening of symptoms attributable to the disease clinical course will not be considered as adverse effects.
24 hours

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Sao Paulo

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Mateus D Leme, MD, Sao Paulo University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

July 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2014

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 22, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 22, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

January 24, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

January 12, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 5, 2015

Last Verified

January 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1263/13 - University Hospital

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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