Albuteral/Zopenex issues anyone?

[aydenava]

When Ayden was little albuteral would collapse his airway due to broncomalacia,So we have avoided this drug,....In the OR last week he had a broncospasim,so they gave Zopenex & during this he had another one.So we still dont know if he can have it or not.........He responds to atrovent,but will this be good enough in an asthma attack?Now that he doesnt have the trach,Im affraid of bagging him without it......HELP,HELP,HELP!!!!Angie

[KJKK8437]

We just went through this with Alex in the hospital. The collapse was enough to drop his sats by 20 points at night, and we were quite frightened. (In the daytime he could handle it much better.)

Before we went to the hospital, he used to take Duoneb with no problems. Duoneb is albuterol plus atrovent in the same vial. (Xeponex is part of the albuteral family, but it isn't exactly the same.) After the hospital stay, we didn't know what to do. They tried adding atrovent to the Xeponex, but it didn't seem to help. But then, our RTs were not very good over the weekend when it was tried, and the pulms think that maybe they were putting the atrovent in after the Xeponex, which won't do the same thing.

So, long story short, we tested it in the pulm's office on Tuesday. We tried the Duoneb while he was on the pulse-ox, and he dipped only a couple of points. For us, then, the albuteral is locked away so no one can find it. I'm too afraid to ever let him have it again. I'll use Duoneb still, but I will take the extra step to get out the O2 monitor and watch closely when I do it.

I would discuss this with your ENT or pulm and tell them your concerns. My pulm was very fast to respond to my concerns after discharge, and (since Alex was wheezing) we had a chance to try the Duoneb under close supervision, which made me feel better.

Oh, I need to add that they think Alex's collapse is tracheamalacia, not bronchomalacia, but I think the drug issues could be the same in either case