According to new data, the use of ibuprofen or acetaminophen did not affect the length of a hospital stay for children with asthma.

“Ibuprofen and acetaminophen are common anti-fever and anti-pain medications in children; however, only ibuprofen also has anti-inflammatory properties,” Lindsey C. Douglas, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York, told Infectious Diseases in Children. “We looked at children with asthma, a common chronic inflammatory condition of the lung, to see if the choice of acetaminophen or ibuprofen affected clinical outcomes.”

The researchers conducted a retrospective study of children (n = 1,197) aged 4-18 years hospitalized for asthma from 1998-2012 at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore during the first 48 hours of hospitalization to determine who received ibuprofen (n = 711) and who received acetaminophen (n = 486). Patients were excluded if they had received both medications during hospitalization.

“In children hospitalized with asthma and treated exclusively with either ibuprofen or acetaminophen, we found no difference between groups in the length of hospital stay,” Douglas told Infectious Diseases in Children.

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