Cough in children
Abstract
Cough is a common problem in children. Acute cough lasts less than 3 weeks, subacute 3–8 weeks and chronic cough more than 8 weeks.
Acute cough is usually caused by common viral upper respiratory tract infection. However, the child should be thoroughly evaluated to rule out a serious underlying condition or disease responsible for the cough.
The commonest cause of subacute cough is a viral infection (postinfectious cough) and it usually resolves spontaneously. If the child is otherwise well and the cough is dry and there are no specific alerts for a serious disease and the cough is resolving, a period of observation is all that is recommended. If there are any specific pointers in history and examination identified for an inhaled foreign body, chronic lung disease, or in a case of progressive cough, immediate investigations are needed.
Most chronic coughs in childhood are due to viral infections, but may signify a serious underlying disease too. Chronic cough is subdivided into specific cough (i.e., cough associated with other symptoms and signs suggestive of an associated or underlying problem) and nonspecific cough (i.e., dry cough in the absence of an identifiable respiratory disease of known etiology).
To prevent unnecessary investigations and ineffective treatment, and at the same time not to overlook a severe underlying disease, cough guidelines have been designed which are based on evidencebased medicine.
Downloads
References
Goldsobel AB, Chipps BE. Cough in the Pediatric Population. The Journal of Pediatrics. 2010;156(3):352–8.e1.
Kantar A, Bernardini R, Paravati F, Minasi D, Sacco O. Chronic cough in preschool children. Early Human Development. 2013;89:S19-S24.
Castro Wagner JB, Pine HS. Chronic Cough in Children. Pediatric Clinics of North America. 2013;60(4):951–67.
Shields MD, Bush A, Everard ML, McKenzie S, Primhak R. Recommendations for the assessment and management of cough in children. Torax. 2007;63(Supplement 3):iii1-iii15.
Irwin RS, Baumann MH, Bolser DC, Boulet L-P, Braman SS, Brightling CE, et al. Diagnosis and Management of Cough Executive Summary. Chest. 2006;129(1):1S-23S.
Irwin RS, French CT, Lewis SZ, Diekemper RL, Gold PM. Overview of the Management of Cough. Chest. 2014;146(4):885–9.
Wald ER, Applegate KE, Bordley C, Darrow DH, Glode MP, Marcy SM, et al. Clinical Practice Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Acute Bacterial Sinusitis in Children Aged 1 to 18 Years. PEDIATRICS. 2013;132(1):e262-e80.
Hopkins A, Lahiri T, Salerno R, Heath B. Changing Epidemiology of Life-Treatening Upper Airway Infections: The Reemergence of Bacterial Tracheitis. PEDIATRICS. 2006;118(4):1418–21.
King-Schultz LW, Orvidas LJ, Mannenbach MS. Stridor Is Not Always Croup. Pediatric Emergency Care. 2015;31(2):140–3.10.
Shields MD, Tavagnanam S. Te difcult coughing child: prolonged acute cough in children. Cough 2013;9:11–16.
Shields MD. Pertussis: a signifcant cause of prolonged acute cough in previously vaccinated school-aged children. Evidence Based Medicine. 2014;20(1):35-.12.
Kotnik Pirš A. Kašelj pri otroku. In: Astma pri otroku. Krivec U, Praprotnik M, ur. Ljubljana: Medicinska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani; 2014. p. 25–29.
Weinberger M, Fischer A. Differential diagnosis of chronic cough in children. Allergy and Asthma Proceedings. 2014;35(2):95–103.
Chang AB, Van Asperen PP, Glasgow N, Robertson CF, Mellis CM, Masters IB, et al. Children With Chronic Cough. Chest. 2015;147(3):745–53.
Hosie PH, Fitzgerald DA, Jaffe A, Birman CS, Rutland J, Morgan LC. Presentation of primary ciliary dyskinesia in children: 30 years‘ experience. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. 2014;51(7):722–6.
Craven V, Everard ML. Protracted bacterial bronchitis: reinventing an old disease. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 2012;98(1):72–6.
Verhagen LM, de Groot R. Recurrent, protracted and persistent lower respiratory tract infection: A neglected clinical entity. Journal of Infection. 2015;71:S106-S11.
Paul SP, Sanapala S, Bhatt JM. Recognition and management of children with protracted bacterial bronchitis. British Journal of Hospital Medicine. 2015;76(7):398–404.
Bidiwala A, Krilov LR, Pirzada M, Patel SJ. Pro-Con Debate: Protracted Bacterial Bronchitis as a Cause of Chronic Cough in Children. Pediatric Annals. 2015;44(8):329–36.
Vertigan AE, Murad MH, Pringsheim T, Feinstein A, Chang AB, Newcombe PA, et al. CHEST Expert Cough Panel. Somatic Cough Syndrome (Previously Referred to as Psychogenic Cough) and Tic Cough (Previously Referred to as Habit Cough) in Adults and Children: CHEST Guideline and Expert Panel Report. Chest 2015;148(1):24–31.
Fajardo EU, Gómez de Agüero IB, Martínez MC. Tos persistente[cited 29 Nov 2016]. Available from: http://www.aeped.es/sites/default/fles/documentos/9_4.pdf
Morice AH. Over-the-counter cough medicines: New approaches. Pulmonary Pharmacology & Terapeutics. 2015;35:149–51.
Ostroff C, Lee CE, McMeekin J. Unapproved Prescription Cough, Cold, and Allergy Drug Products. Chest. 2011;140(2):295–300.
Global initiative for asthma (GINA). Global strategy for asthma management and prevention: NHLBI/WHO Workshop report. Bethesda. Revised 2016[cited 29 Nov 2016]. Available from; http://www.ginasthma.com.
The Author transfers to the Publisher (Zdravniški vestnik/Slovenian Medical Journal) all economic copyrights following form Article 22 of the Slovene Copyright and Related Rights Act (ZASP), including the right of reproduction, the right of distribution, the rental right, the right of public performance, the right of public transmission, the right of public communication by means of phonograms and videograms, the right of public presentation, the right of broadcasting, the right of rebroadcasting, the right of secondary broadcasting, the right of communication to the public, the right of transformation, the right of audiovisual adaptation and all other rights of the author according to ZASP.
The aforementioned rights are transferred non-exclusively, for an unlimited number of editions, for the term of the statutory
The Author can make use of his work himself or transfer subjective rights to others only after 3 months from date of first publishing in the journal Zdravniški vestnik/Slovenian Medical Journal.
The Publisher (Zdravniški vestnik/Slovenian Medical Journal) has the right to transfer the rights, acquired parties without explicit consent of the Author.
The Author consents that the Article be published under the Creative Commons BY-NC 4.0 (attribution-non-commercial) or comparable licence.
