The Verdict Is In: Mist
Doesn't Alleviate Croup
Excerpt By Alison McCook, Reuter's Health

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite a long tradition of use, mist appears to offer no benefit to children with croup, Canadian researchers report.

"There are many practices in medicine that are based on tradition rather than scientific evidence. The use of mist in croup is one such practice," lead author Dr. Gina Neto of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa told Reuters Health.

In the present study, Neto and her colleagues discovered that children with croup who were treated with mist--in the form of humidified oxygen--had no more improvements in their symptoms, and did not breathe any easier than patients who did not receive any mist.

Neto cautioned that the current research focused on children with only moderately severe croup, who came to the emergency department as a result. Consequently, she said that mist treatment may benefit some children who do not come to the hospital because of symptoms.

But scientific evidence regarding the benefits of mist treatment in other environments is lacking, Neto added.

"Anecdotally, there are many parents who have sat with the child in the steamy bathroom with no relief and when they go outside to come to the hospital, the child gets better. It appears that in some children, the cold air may be of greater benefit than the humidified air," Neto said.

"I inform parents that at home, they can try either humidity or they can sit outside with the child in the cool night air. If there is no improvement after 15 minutes of sitting outside, they should go to the hospital," the researcher advised.

She added that she would still recommend mist for children with severe croup, as the treatment cannot hurt, and may offer some benefit to those with more severe symptoms.

Croup, characterized by congestion and a "barking" type of cough, affects about 20% of 1- and 2-year-olds, up to 5% of whom end up hospitalized as a result.

For years, practitioners and parents alike believed mist could help alleviate the symptoms of croup by soothing the inflamed lungs and loosening secretions, making it easier for children to cough the secretions out of their systems.

However, in the current study, that proved not to be the case. The results stem from a comparison of 71 children with croup, half of whom were treated with mist for up to 2 hours. The researchers measured croup symptoms in both groups of children every half-hour for 2 hours.

Reporting in the recent issue of the journal Academic Emergency Medicine, Neto and her colleagues found that mist-treated children showed similar improvements to untreated children and breathed just as easily. Both groups also had similar heart rates and levels of oxygen in their blood.

Neto explained that mist might not alleviate inflammation in the lungs of croup patients because the water droplets may be too big to reach the lungs, instead just settling in the mouth and throat. "In addition, children often become very upset when mist is blown in their face, and this may counteract any possible benefit," she added.

SOURCE: Academic Emergency Medicine 2002;9:873-879.

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".