Treatment of fever in acute upper respiratory tract infections in children

Abstract

Introduction. The WHO recommends using acetaminophen (paracetamol) and ibuprofen in fever treatment in children and does not recommend their use in sequence to avoid overdose. However, in recent years, preparations containing both medicinal components have appeared, which allows fever to be relieved safely and the daily dosage of the medicines to be reduced.Objective. To obtain additional data on the efficacy and safety of antipyretic drug combination in comparison with mono drugs in children with the febrile syndrome in acute upper respiratory tract infectionsMaterials and methods. Single-center non-interventional (observational) comparative study was conducted in children from 3 to 12 years of age with acute respiratory infections accompanied by fever. Children were divided into 3 groups: the treatment group (83 children) received a combined antipyretic drug in the form of dispensable tablets (100 mg ibuprofen and 125 mg paracetamol); control group 1 (42 children) received paracetamol in the form of suspension; control group 2 (43 children) received ibuprofen in the form of suspension. The clinical efficacy and safety of antipyretic therapy and also the satisfaction of the patients’ parents, were evaluated in the dynamics.Results. The results showed similar efficacy and safety of all three medications, but the daily dose of medications with the combined dispersible tablets was lower, more so for paracetamol and somewhat less so for ibuprofen. In the combined dispersible tablets group, the proportion of patients with a temperature < 37.2 °C was statistically significantly higher 1 hour after administration than in the paracetamol and ibuprofen drug groups. Ibuprofen only compared with the study drug in terms of efficacy after 2 hours, while paracetamol was already effective after 3 hours.Conclusions. The study showed that the combined drug in the form of dispersible tablets (100 mg of ibuprofen and 125 mg of paracetamol) showed statistically significant efficacy parameters, is safe and well-tolerated by patients.