[Results of outpatient clinic care of children with bronchial asthma and chronic recurring bronchitis].

More than 4000 children with chronic and recurrent bronchopulmonary diseases have been cared for in the Dresden district, GDR (just under 2 million inhabitants) in 28 out-patient clinics over the past 7 years. The prevalence of this disease group is thus around 1.2%. There was a marked increase in children with bronchial asthma from initially 1000 to 1600, corresponding to 26 and 40%, respectively, within the disease group. By contrast, there was a continuous decrease in children requiring bronchological investigations (24 to 13%). Bronchiectasis was also encountered with diminished frequency. One third and one quarter of the patients dropped out of care over two three-year periods, respectively. Of these 70 to 75% were discharged symptom-free. The remaining patients were referred to adult out-patient clinics for continued care. Whereas nearly 80% of the discharged children with chronic or recurrent bronchitis became symptom-free, only 30% of the asthmatics showed this satisfactory result. The analysis of this large group of patients confirms the clear-cut success of out-patient clinic treatment of children with chronic and recurrent bronchopulmonary disease.