Treatment of acute bronchiolitis in infants: to do without respiratory physiotherapy?

Acute viral bronchiolitis is the most common disease of lower respiratory tract in young children. In 99% of cases, patients recover within two weeks. Treatment relies on supportive care such as unblocking nasopharyngeal, hydration, splitting feeding (if vomiting). The use of chest physiotherapy, combining the increased exhalation technique and assisted cough, is common in France despite the lack of scientific data on its efficacy. A French study looked at 496 infants hospitalized for acute bronchiolitis. Two groups of children were formed: three times daily, one group of children received chest physiotherapy with gentle nasal suction, while the other received only gentle nasal suction. The main objective of the study was the time for healing. The difference between the two groups, using this criterion, showed that the mean time improvement of children with and without chest physiotherapy was 2.31 and 2.02 days. The difference was not statistically significant (p = 0,33). On drugs (bronchodilators, anticholinergic, corticosteroids), recent data from the literature do not meet specific efficacy.