Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate ribavirin therapy for acute bronchiolitis caused by viral syncytial respiratory infection.
Patients and methods: Ninety-seven patients with acute bronchiolitis in which respiratory syncytial virus was identified by direct immunofluorescence and admitted to the hospital between October 1990 and May 1995 were studied. Data pertaining to age, sex, weight, respiratory frequency at admission, respiratory frequency on the fourth day, day in which respiratory ausculation was normal, day in which there were no thoracic retractions, number of days that the infants needed oxygen, duration of hospital stay, and whether or not they were treated with ribavirin were collected retrospectively.
Results: At admission there were no statistically significant differences in patients treated or not with ribavirin or in age, sex or weight, but the respiratory frequency was higher in those patients treated with ribavirin than in those who were not. The number of days of oxygen therapy was statistically different between these groups, with infants treated with ribavirin requiring oxygen for 2.7 days and the nontreated group requiring 1.7 days. However, we think that this difference is not clinically relevant.
Conclusions: We did not find any difference of clinical relevance between patients treated or not with ribavirin.