Abstract
Objective In the pediatric population, acute bronchitis (AB) is a leading cause of illness
absence from childcare, school, or apprenticeship. We report a meta-analysis of double-blind,
randomized trials with children and adolescents with AB (aged 1–18 years), who were
treated with Pelargonium extract EPs 7630 or placebo for 7 days.
Methods The average number of days absent from childcare, school, or apprenticeship due to
illness and the proportion of patients still unable to return to their normal activities
at treatment end were assessed.
Results Literature search identified two eligible trials with a total of 420 patients. Illness
absence was reported for all but two patients under placebo at baseline and for 46.7%
(EPs 7630) and 85.0% (placebo) of patients at day 7. Meta-analysis risk ratio for
absence at day 7 was 0.55 (95% confidence interval: 0.47, 0.64) for all patients,
0.59 (0.46, 0.76) for children younger than 6 years, and 0.53 (0.44, 0.64) for participants
aged 6 to 18 years, all favoring EPs 7630. Compared with placebo, average time until
return to normal activities was reduced by EPs 7630 by 1.51 (1.16, 1.86) days for
all subjects, by 1.50 (0.92, 20.7) days for those younger than 6 years, and by 1.54
(1.11, 1.97) days for those 6 to 18 years of age (p < 0.001 favoring EPs 7630 for all treatment group comparisons shown).
Conclusion For children and adolescents with AB, meta-analysis shows that EPs 7630 treatment
for 7 days significantly reduces the average time of illness absence and significantly
increases the proportion of patients able to return to normal activities within 1
week.
Keywords
acute bronchitis - adolescent - child -
Pelargonium
- extracts
