Introduction:

Asthma is one of the most frequent chronic diseases in pediatrics, characterized by recurrent episodes of wheezing, dyspnea, chest tightness and cough. It has an inter-crisis (preventive) treatment protocol that allows symptom reduction and control, thus maintaining physical activity levels and normal lung function, as well as preventing exacerbations.

Objective:

To describe the frequency of follow-up and prophylactic treatment of asthmatic patients from 6 to 12 years of age who presented to the Emergency Department of the Acosta Ñu General Children’sHospital.

Materials and Methods:

This was an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional and prospective study. Children from 6 to 12 years of age who presented to the Emergency Department of a Pediatric Hospital and were diagnosed with Asthma were included. Patients with underlying lung disease (COPD, Cystic Fibrosis) were excluded. We used probabilistic sampling of consecutive cases. Variables were age, sex, place of residence, follow-up of the asthmatic patient, reason for lack of follow-up, asthma in the family, classification of the asthmatic crisis, number of hospitalizations for asthma, and prophylactic treatment. The data was analyzed in the SPSS v21 system using descriptive statistics. An alpha error of less than 5% was considered.

Results:

51.9% were female, the mean age was 8.3 ± 2 years, almost all of the subjects came from the Greater Asunción area, more than half of the patients had mild asthma attacks, 48.9% had a family history of asthma, 28.6% were followed by specialists and 25.6% used some type of prophylactic medication. No relationship was observed between prophylactic medication and number of hospitalizations.

Conclusion:

A quarter of the patients had follow-up and some type of prophylactic medication.

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