[Controlled ventilation in the treatment of status asthmaticus in children].

ASTHMA IS DEFINED as intermittent spells of bronchospasm with symptom-free periods in a child who has a history or family history of an allergic condition. When the bronchospasm does not respond to bronchodilator treatment, or when extensive plugging of the bronchioles with sticky opalescent mucus occurs, the child is in status asthmaticus. 1 Although the large majority of children admitted to hospital respond to conservative treatment, there is a definite incidence of children who do not respond to these measures, in whom the condition results in respiratory failure and death, z,3 A recent study from England of the mortality rate from asthma in all age groups has shown it to have almost doubled in the period from 1959 to 1966. 4 In the same study, in the 10-to-14-year age group, the death rate h a d increased eight times, accounting for 5.7 per cent of all deaths in that age group and equalling the number of deaths caused by leukemia and pneumonia. Smaller increases in mortality from asthma have been reported from Australia, Japan~ Western Europe, and the United States.