Bronchitis in Children: Does It Really Exist?

Is protracted bacterial bronchitis a real phenomenon in children? To find out, researchers retrospectively studied 197 children (55% age 0–3 years; 9% >7 years) who had been referred to an academic pediatric pulmonary clinic from 2004 to 2008. All had experienced “wet cough” for more than 4 weeks and had not responded to what the authors describe as “conventional therapy with antibiotics and corticosteroids.” Some patients were referred for reasons other than chronic cough, including possible foreign-body aspiration or wheezing that was unresponsive to bronchodilators; patients identified as having underlying conditions were excluded.

All patients underwent flexible bronchoscopy. The character of the bronchial secretions was recorded, and br…