01
September
2015
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01:20 AM
America/Chicago

Pediatric Bronchiolitis: Intermittent Pulse Oximetry OK

For children hospitalized with bronchiolitis, intermittent pulse oximetry did not shorten length of hospital stay

The results from a new randomized controlled trial show that clinicians can routinely consider intermittent pulse oximetry monitoring in the management of these children if they are improving clinically.

Russell McCulloh, MD, from the Department of Pediatrics, Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues report their findings in an article published online August 31 in JAMA Pediatrics.

"Pulse oximetry remains a controversial element of care in pediatrics because there is tension between the assertion that missing, clinically unapparent hypoxia could have a significant negative effect on infants with bronchiolitis and the belief that monitoring may result in unnecessary hospitalizations and a prolonged LOS," the authors explain.

To address those issues, Dr McCulloh and colleagues designed the randomized, parallel-group superiority clinical trial. The study enrolled otherwise healthy infants and children aged 2 years or younger who were hospitalized for bronchiolitis during 2009 to 2014 at one of four children's hospitals in the United States.

Read more via Medscape.