Evaluation of patients with chronic cough in school age children

Aim: Chronic cough is a common problem in childhood. Simple viral infections can cause chronic cough, as well as underlying progressive diseases. For this reason, guidelines that can be applied in clinical practice are very valuable. In the study, we aimed to evaluate our patients with chronic cough in the light of the literature. Methods: The documents of patients over the age of 6 who applied to the pediatric allergy outpatient clinic due to cough that was ongoing for more than 4 weeks between January 2022 and June 2022 were evaluated retrospectively. Results: 182 patients aged 6 -17.9 years old were included in the study. There were 62.1% males. The mean age was 9.8± 3.8 years. 32.4% of our patients were diagnosed with asthma; 43.4% Upper Airway Cough Syndrome (20.9% sinusitis, 17.6% allergic rhinitis, 4.9% non-allergic rhinitis); 7.68% Protracted bacterial bronchitis, 6.59% postinfectious cough, 4.9% patients had psychogenic cough, 4 (2.2%) patients had Gastroesophageal reflux disease, 2 (1.1%) patients had bronchiectasis, 2 (1.1%) patients had Primary ciliary dyskinesia, 1 (0.55%) patient was diagnosed with eosinophilic esopha- gitis. Conclusions: Many different diseases can cause chronic cough in childhood. It is observed that drugs such as antibiotics and symptomatic medicines are frequently used unnecessarily by the parents. Ac- curate evaluation of patients, especially taking a detailed history, is very important in the manage - ment of these patients. It is very important to evaluate each patient individually.