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Dr. Anzalone presented a Pediatric Asthma
Seminar for Reading Hospital Emergency Room Nursing Staff.
See photos below.
Dr. Salvatore Anzalone of The Children's Clinic presented a Pediatric
Asthma Seminar at The Reading Hospital and Medical Center for about twenty
nurses from the hospital's Emergency Room Nursing Staff. Dr. Anzalone shared his
extensive experience diagnosing and treating asthmatic children with the nurses
who attended.
The doctor's very
thorough and engaging presentation held everyone's attention to the end. His
main thrust was that asthma is a lifetime condition that can be managed by
monitoring of symptoms and timely use of appropriate medications. Doing so has
allowed numerous professional athletes and Olympians to participate in rigorous
sports in spite of their being asthmatics.
Dr. Anzalone began
with an overview of the physiology of asthma that led into how symptoms of
asthma present when a distressed patient arrives for treatment.
He discussed new
medications and how their use differs from traditional medications. He
recommended that all long-term asthma medications be chosen based upon their
having the least side effects, and demonstrated various types of inhaler devices
for dispensing medications.
Dr. Anzalone said that
an Action Plan is needed for long-term treatment of each asthmatic patient. He
discussed how to develop an Action Plan and how to use it effectively.
The Pulmonary Function
Test is the standard for measuring lung function. But there's also the portable
Peak Flow Meter that quickly measures lung function at a very basic level. One
of the nurses volunteered and demonstrated use of one of these small hand-held
devices that come in both adult and pediatric sizes. The Children's Clinic
provides Peak Flow Meters to parents of asthmatic children for home monitoring
and managing of their child's lung condition. Then parents can quickly and
easily determine if they should administer certain additional medications to
keep their child's lung function in a safe range without requiring a visit to
their doctor's office or an Emergency Room. Dr. Anzalone emphasized that this
kind of careful use of the Peak Flow Meter can bring a sense of normalcy to the
lives of asthmatic children and their families while simultaneously removing a
burden from our health care system.
Triggers of asthma
include many things, and are not limited to pollen, dust mites, cold
temperatures, allergies to certain foods or things in the house. If a child
shows up at the ER with an asthma attack after playing football in the cold, it
wasn't the exercise that triggered the asthma, it was the cold! Common sense
should prevail. If a child is suddenly diagnosed with asthma and an allergy to
dogs, don't move Fido out of the house, just don't have the dog sleeping in the
child's bed.
Dr. Anzalone closed be
re-stating that education of families is the key for managing pediatric asthma
so that a child's life is not limited by it.
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