DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2019.v07i01.012

Pages: 74-78

Bronchiolitis is a common illness of the respiratory tract. It's caused by an infection that affects the tiny airways, called the bronchioles that lead to the lungs. As these airways become inflamed, they swell and fill with mucus, which can make breathing difficult. Bronchiolitis is the most common reason for hospitalization of children in many countries like Bangladesh. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) is the most common organism causing bronchiolitis. We conducted a descriptive study which included 90 infants and children between 2-24 months of age and admitted with sign & symptoms of bronchiolitis in the hospital during the period from January 2015 to December 2015. The aim of our study was to document the clinical features of bronchiolitis in children in Bangladesh. We selected subjects who were stayed in the hospital more than 3 days with bronchiolitis. In our study, Mean age of patients was 14 (±5.6) months. Males were dominating the distribution. All the cases with fever, cough, running nose, respiratory distress and feeding difficulty were present in 81.11, 87.77%, 100%, 86.66%, and 76.66% respectively. Among them 61.11% was exclusive breast feed children, 37.77% affected by passive smoking, 45.55% was from lower socioeconomic status and 65.5% from rural area. Majority of cases were from lower socioeconomic status and lived in rural area. Clinical parameters- mean respiratory rate was 64.7, mean heart rate was 103.9 and mean oxygen saturation was 91.1 in our study. The study highlighted the clinical features of bronchiolitis in children aged less than two (2) years. This study will help clinicians as well as policy makers to treat children with bronchiolitis more effectively. We will recommend multicenter study with large sample size to assess clinical features of bronchiolitis among children less than two years more accurately.