The place of cromolyn sodium in the long-term management of childhood asthma based on a 3- to 5-year follow-up.

The long-term value of cromolyn sodium in the management of childhood asthma has been assessed over 3 to 5 years in 46 children with chronic perennial asthma who were not initially receiving corticosteroid therapy. The need to use steroids because of poor control during treatment with SCG was taken as a criterion of SCG treatment failure. Most such failures occurred early, but there were a few late treatment failures so that the proportion of SCG successes leveled of at 65% by the fourth and fifth years. Failure with SCG tended to occur in the younger children whose disease had progressed rapidly. By the fifth year, half of the children successfully treated by SCG had been able to discontinue use of the drug, and these children, but not the others, had diminished bronchial lability as shown on exercise testing.