Management of unresponsive asthma

Difficult asthma is defined as asthma that is not controlled despite treatment with> 800 micro g budesonide or equivalent per day. Poor control is defined as the need for bronchodilators more than three times a week, school absence of more than five days a term, or one episode or more of wheezing each month. Common causes of poor response to treatment include; wrong diagnosis, inappropriate medications or improper inhalation technique, poor adherence to medications and co-morbidity. Steroid resistant asthma is uncommon and estimated to be 1 in 1000-10000 asthmatic patients. If there is no functional improvement to prednisolone 2 mg/kg/day for 2 weeks with adherence checked by measuring serum prednisolone and cortisol levels, a fibreoptic bronchoscopic examination with bronchoalveolar lavage and large airway biopsy should be considered. Eosinophilic inflammation identified on the biopsy in a child who is unresponsive to prednisolone may benefit from alternative anti-inflammatory treatments such as cyclosporin. Neutrophilic infiltration in biopsy may benefit with macrolide antibiotics, 5-lipogenase inhibitors or theophyllines.