Intravenous beta-2-agonists for acute asthma in the emergency department

Intravenous beta-2-agonists appear to produce no benefits as compared to treatment given by inhalation.

A Cochrane review included 15 studies with a total of 584 subjects. Selective intravenous beta-2-agonists conferred no advantage over the comparator regimes. It was associated with lower PEFR after 60 min as compared to inhaled beta-2-agonist, although the difference was not statistically significant. There were no sub-groups in which this agent was shown to be effective. The use of IV beta2-agonists was associated with an non-significant increase in risk of autonomic side effects (2–12 times), and higher heart rates (4–10 beats per minute).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (variability in results across studies). Efficacy in the pediatric population remains unclear since too few pediatric clinical trials were identified.

Ədəbiyyat

1. Travers A, Jones AP, Kelly K, Barker SJ, Camargo CA, Rowe BH. Intravenous beta2-agonists for acute asthma in the emergency department. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2001;(2):CD002988.