A clinical study comparing the NebuTech nebulizer, developed by Salter Labs, and a standard nebulizer found that pediatric asthma patients using the newer device had a nearly 45-minute reduction in emergency-room hospital stays.
Results of the Phase 4 trial, “Comparison of Nebulizers in ED in Pediatric Asthma Patients,” were presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) 2016 Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The presentation was given by Matthew Wilkinson, MD, with the Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin, Texas, and data showed that children with moderate to severe asthma exacerbations had a statistically significant reduction, 44 minutes, in emergency room visits.
The randomized, controlled study (NCT01951378), which is due to conclude this month, compared a standard nebulizer — where pediatric patients received one-hour continuous albuterol treatments — to back-to-back, five-minute albuterol treatments using the NebuTech nebulizer.
“Our long term research goals relate to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of acute asthma care for children in the emergency department (ED). Nebulizer technological advances have allowed us to test some theories with regard to the optimal delivery of beta agonists to sick children in the ED,” Dr. Wilkinson said, according to a press release. “The results of this trial suggest that using these newer technologies may allow us to more quickly and efficiently disposition our sickest asthmatics. We are very excited to conduct future trials to further test this hypothesis.”
NebuTech was chosen for the trial due to its breath-enhanced design, which allows for a great delivery of medication to patients early in the inspiratory phase, and its rapid treatment time. The speed of treatment was seen to allow for a reduction in time between reassessments, quicker action on the resolution of symptoms, and to result in a statistically significant reduction in the duration of the emergency visits, while sustaining a similar level of patient safety.
“A pediatric asthma exacerbation and [emergency room] visit is stressful for both the child and the parent. NebuTech offers the comfort of less time receiving therapy, faster relief of symptoms and a shorter stay … for an asthmatic child,” said Lorelee Goehle, a registered respiratory therapist (RRT) and Salter Labs’ clinical director.
NebuTech, like other nebulizers, is designed to generate aerosols that deliver a medication directly to a patient for breathing.
“Hundreds of hospitals are switching to NebuTech every year, making it the fastest-growing jet nebulizer in the United States. An important driver of this is the versatility of NebuTech to be used with COPD patients and asthmatics at the hospital and the continuum of care our reusable NebuTech provides to these patients at home,” said Jane Kiernan, Salter Labs’ chief executive officer.