Zinc sulphate for acute bronchiolitis: A double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

The use of adjunctive therapies to achieve rapid recovery from clinical symptoms of acute bronchiolitis would appear necessary. This study was performed to determine the effect of zinc sulphate on treating acute bronchiolitis. In this study, 100 children affected with acute bronchiolitis were investigated. Fifty patients received oral zinc sulphate and 50 patients placebo. Signs and symptoms of the disease were compared between two groups at the time of admission and then 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours after the beginning of treatment. The trend of recovery of clinical signs and symptoms was more favourable in the case group than in the control group in 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours after beginning of the treatment. The significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of improvements in coughing and wheezing 48 and 72 hours after the beginning of the treatment (P<0.05). Full recovery was observed in 49 (98%) patients receiving zinc sulphate within 72 hours of the beginning of treatment (P=0.0001). The present study showed that administration of zinc sulphate accelerates improvement from clinical signs and symptoms of acute bronchiolitis. Thus we recommend the use of zinc sulphate for the treatment of acute bronchiolitis.