Asthma Inpatient Care

Asthma is one of the most common childhood diseases and one of the leading causes of hospitalization for children. Although asthma exacerbations are common, the exacerbations can usually be successfully controlled through proper asthma management at home. Children with severe asthma exacerbations, or children where the outpatient therapy isn’t working, need to be admitted to the hospital.

Recommended Treatment By Joint Commission & NACHRI

The Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach inpatient asthma program follows Joint Commission guidelines and participates in a national quality research study with NACHRI in order to measure and record data on asthma treatments. The general pediatrics care team also creates an individualized asthma action plan—that uses the stop light identifier’s of green, yellow, red—to show when and recommend the type of rescue or controller medication a child should use.  

After a child gets their respiratory assessment, based on their Pediatric Asthma Score (PAS), the general pediatrics physician will prescribe a rescue medicine, such as a bronchodilator treatment, or a controller medicine, such as systemic corticosteroids.

Rescue Medicine

Rescue medications work immediately to relieve asthma symptoms when they occur. Rescue medicines are usually inhaled directly into the lungs to open up the airways. Even though they are the most effective in an urgent situation they don’t have a long-term effect. The most common type of rescue medicine is bronchodilators.

Bronchodilator Treatments

Bronchodilators are medications used to help improve airflow into the lungs. Bronchodilators relieve shortness of breath during asthma attacks by relaxing the smooth muscle surrounding the airways. This allows the airways to open, letting more air move in and out of the lungs. There are three main types of bronchodilators:

If the bronchodilator doesn't control a severe asthma exacerbation, other medications may be given orally or injected to help treat it.

Controller Medicine

A child's airways may be inflamed from their asthma, so controller medications are prescribed to prevent unexpected asthma flare-ups, prevent airway inflammation and keep the lungs from making too much mucus. Controller medicines are usually slow-acting and may take days or weeks to start working. There are many types of controller medications, but inhaled corticosteroids are the most common and the preferred long-term treatment for children with frequent asthma symptoms.

Corticosteroids Treatment

Corticosteroids are usually given through an inhaler or nebulizer to reduce airway inflammation. This preventive or maintenance medication controls the overall asthma condition and prevents symptoms from developing. Research shows that inhaled corticosteroids improve asthma control and their risk of causing long-term negative effects is minimal.