Treatment of pediatric asthma and chronic cough

  Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic respiratory diseases in children. It is characterized by recurrent episodes of wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath and chest tightness, mostly associated with exposure to allergens, cold air, physical and chemical stimuli, respiratory infections and exercise, and often attacks or worsens at night and/or early in the morning. The incidence of asthma is currently on the rise in countries around the world, seriously affecting the physical and mental health of affected children, and can result in increased parental absenteeism and medical costs. Numerous studies have proven that early intervention and management of childhood asthma is beneficial for disease control and improves prognosis.  Strictly speaking, asthma is a non-curable disease and requires persistent long-term treatment to reduce and control asthma attacks. Chinese medicine is based on the principle of treating the symptoms in an acute manner and treating the root cause in a slow manner, with significant long-term effects. Our department has formed a set of comprehensive treatment standard of combining Chinese and Western medicine for asthma. Our preparation “pediatric anti-asthma granules” has been used in clinical practice for more than ten years and has good effect on mild and moderate asthma attacks; for children with asthma in remission, the main manifestations are “two deficiencies of lung and spleen” and “two deficiencies of lung and kidney”. For children in remission with asthma, the main symptoms are “deficiency of the lung and spleen” and “deficiency of the lung and kidney”, which are treated with Chinese medicine; and according to the viewpoint of “treating winter diseases in summer” and “treating summer diseases in winter”, Chinese medicine acupuncture points are applied, and good therapeutic effects have been achieved.  Cough is a protective reflex of the body with a defensive function, but long-term chronic cough can lead to complications in the respiratory and circulatory systems. However, chronic cough with cough as the only or main symptom that persists is often under-recognized, causing many children who visit the clinic with cough to be misdiagnosed as “upper respiratory tract infection”, “bronchitis”, or even “pneumonia”. The cough is often misdiagnosed as “upper respiratory tract infection,” “bronchitis,” or even “pneumonia” and treated extensively with antibiotics, with little effect. The Respiratory Group of the Pediatrics Branch of the Chinese Medical Association developed guidelines for the diagnosis and management of chronic cough in children in December 2007, defining it as cough symptoms lasting >4 weeks. The etiological composition is complex and varied, with more than 10 diseases being involved, often caused by respiratory diseases and, in a few cases, by extrapulmonary diseases. It can be caused by one etiology or multiple etiologies at the same time. The three main causes are cough variant asthma, post-infectious cough and upper airway cough syndrome. Cough variant asthma can develop into classic asthma, so early diagnosis and treatment is of positive significance.  Modern medicine commonly treats this disease with anti-inflammatory, anti-infective, anti-allergic and cough expectorant methods. Chinese medicine has been treating cough for more than 2,000 years and has achieved good results in the treatment of chronic cough by identifying diseases and evidence.