Aminophylline infusion in acute severe asthma: where do we go from here?

The authors critically appraised the literature according to study design, patient characteristics, and the outcome measures used. Well-designed studies suggest that aminophylline is not an appropriate first-line medication for acute asthma. The literature does not clearly indicate whether aminophylline is an appropriate second-line medication. A telephone survey of full-time emergency physicians, conducted to determine current practice, suggests that full-time emergency physicians add aminophylline to their treatment protocol more often than not (60.9%) when patients have not improved after two salbutamol nebulizer treatments.