[Upper and lower airway diseases in children with persistent cough]

Persistent cough is a frequent and frustrating problem in the pediatric field. One hundred and seventy two children presenting with persistent cough for longer than 2 weeks were evaluated by both otolaryngologists and pediatricians. One hundred and twenty nine cases (75%) were found to have lower airway diseases, of which bronchial asthma, bronchitis and pneumonia, in that order, were the most common. One hundred and forty two cases (82%) had sinusitis, in 34 cases of which no causative diseases except sinusitis were found to be responsible for the persistent cough. Sinusitis was found in 90% of patients with pneumonia, 81% of those with bronchitis and 65% of those with poorly controlled asthma cases. These results revealed that sinusitis is an important causative factor for persistent cough in children. All the patients with pneumonia and bronchitis were cured by antibiotic administration for 2 weeks, whereas conservative treatment of sinusitis for as long as 6 months was less satisfactory resulting in only 60% cure, 18% improvement and 22% without improvement. In cases with sinusitis and lower airway diseases, continuous treatment for sinusitis is necessary even after treatment of the lower airway diseases has been completed.