Volatile anesthetic rescue therapy in children with acute asthma: innovative but costly or just costly?

Abstract in brief

• The study examines the use of volatile anesthesia (VA) as a rescue therapy for children with severe asthma requiring mechanical ventilation, highlighting that VA is associated with longer hospital stays, higher costs, and increased use of certain medications, but does not impact mortality rates.
• Children treated with VA were less likely to receive inhaled bronchodilators and heliox but more likely to receive neuromuscular blocking agents, with complications like aspiration occurring more frequently in these patients.
• Hospitals with higher VA use (10%) tended to have longer ventilation durations, increased hospital charges, and different medication administration patterns, though patient survival rates remained unaffected by VA use.