Bronchiolitis

Bronchiolitis is an infection of the bronchioles, small air passages in the lungs, that is caused by a virus. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is one of the primary causes of bronchiolitis, especially in infants.

Because bronchiolitis can become a serious illness in infants—especially premature infants—Dayton Children’s works with community physician offices to immunize at-risk infants. This is done through the Synagis® clinic at Dayton Children’s. Synagis is the only FDA-approved medication to help protect high-risk babies from severe RVS disease. It is administered monthly during RSV season. Success is measured by looking at the number of Synagis doses and patients immunized.

Dayton Children’s also measures the average length of stay for patients admitted with bronchiolitis and the number of patients who return to the hospital after being treated and discharged. Patients would return to the hospital if they weren’t sufficiently treated. Our low return rate demonstrates the effectiveness of the treatment protocol.

Bronchitis measurement	2007-2008	2008-2009	2009-2010
Synagis doses/patients	673 doses/207 patients	722 doses/201 patients	519 doses/198 patients
Average length of stay of patients admitted with bronchitis	1.97 days; critical care stay 7.9 days	2.1 days; critical care stay 8.2 days	2.2 days; critical care stay 8.2 days
Percent of patients admitted with bronchiolitis who return to the emergency department within 48 hours of discharge	0.6% (3 of 447 patients)	0.6% (4 of 447 patients)	0.7% (4 of 587 patients)