ClinicalTrials.gg
Not yet recruitingNCT05902702Updated Jun 15, 2023

Isotonic Saline for Children With Bronchiolitis

An interventional study of Nebulized isotonic saline and Nasal irrigation with isotonic saline in Bronchiolitis, Respiratory Disease and Asthma in Children, sponsored by Slagelse Hospital. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 1 Day to 12 Months. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-06-15.

Sponsored by Slagelse Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Sep 2024, 2 years 2 months ago, but the record still lists the study as not yet recruiting.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
300
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
1 Day to 12 Months
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The goal of this randomized clinical trial is to investigate the optimal supportive treatment of bronchiolitis in infants from 0-12 months of age. The main question[s] it aims to answer are:

  • To investigate whether isotonic saline should be used as supportive treatment for children with bronchiolitis, and if so, identify the optimal route of administration. The primary outcome is duration of hospitalization.
  • To investigate the current epidemiology of the viral pathogens causing bronchitis in children in Denmark, and to assess whether children infected with specific pathogens might benefit from treatment with isotonic saline.

The children are randomized after inclusion through computer randomization to one of the 3 arms in the study:

  1. Nebulized isotonic saline
  2. Nasal irrigation with isotonic saline
  3. No treatment with saline

The investigators will compare treatment with saline (both methods) with no treatment, and the investigators will also compare the two methods of delivery of saline (nebulized vs. nasal irrigation).

Read the detailed description

Design: An investigator-initiated, multicenter, open label, three-arm randomized, controlled non-inferiority trial.

Study sites: Seven pediatric departments in eastern Denmark (Slagelse Hospital, Holbæk Hospital, Zealand University Hospital Roskilde, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Copenhagen University Hospital Herlev, Nordsjaellands Hospital, and Nykoebing Falster Hospital).

Participants: Children aged 0-12 months admitted to a pediatric department or emergency department in eastern Denmark with bronchiolitis, whose parents provide informed consent for participation.

Randomization: Participating children are randomized 1:1:1 through computer randomization to either nebulized isotonic saline, nasal irrigation with isotonic saline or no isotonic saline therapy at all. Participating children will have a nasal sample collected and tested for a panel of viral pathogens. Excess material (1 ml nasal lining fluid) from upper airway respiratory samples will be stored in a research biobank until 31.12.2030 and used for sub-phenotyping of bronchiolitis and for developing personalized treatment and prediction of later asthma by means of host transcriptomics and metabolomics, 16S sequencing of the airway microbiome and meta-transcriptomics.

All other treatment is given according to standard of care guidelines.

Sample size: By including 249 children in total (83 in each arm) the investigators can prove non-inferiority of nasal irrigation or nebulized saline relative to no saline with a non-inferiority limit of 12 hours admission, alpha 2.5% and a power of 80%. The investigators aim to include 300 children in total to account for dropouts.

Recruitment: Children will only be included if both parents provide informed consent.

Perspectives: This study may improve current practice for supportive treatment of children with bronchiolitis. If saline is found to be helpful, it may be implemented into global guidelines. If no effect of saline is found, physicians may stop spending resources and manpower on an ineffective and potentially unpleasant treatment. Second, if saline is effective, but nasal irrigation proves to be non-inferior to nebulization, it may also reduce the workload of nurses, and possibly duration of hospitalization, because the treatment can be delivered by the parents at home. Moreover, the parents are empowered to manage their child's illness themselves, potentially improving the experience of parents as well as the affected child.

02

Conditions studied

  • Bronchiolitis
  • Respiratory Disease
  • Asthma in Children
  • Viral Infection
  • Acute Respiratory Infection

Keywords

  • Nebulized saline
  • Nasal saline drops
  • Nasal saline irrigation
  • Respiratory severity score
03

In context

Bronchiolitis

289 studies on the registry are indexed under Bronchiolitis; 51 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 300 is above the median of 100 across 195 interventional studies indexed under Bronchiolitis.

Browse Bronchiolitis studies →

Lead sponsor

Slagelse Hospital is the lead sponsor of 21 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
1 Day to 12 Months
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Children aged 0-12 months, whose parents give to participate, with symptoms of bronchiolitis including at least one of:

    • Runny nose
    • Dry and persistent cough
    • Labored breathing (tachypnea, retractions, nasal flaring)
    • Grunting
    • Cyanosis or apnea
    • Wheezing or crackles on auscultation
    • O2 saturations below 92 %
    • Difficulties feeding

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children with cystic fibrosis or other serious congenital lung diseases
  • Children in whom treatment with short-acting beta-2 agonist is initiated (as this is delivered in nebulized isotonic saline).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
300 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Nebulized isotonic saline

    5 ml of isotonic saline is administered through a nebulizer with a flow of 10 l oxygen/min

    Other: Nebulized isotonic saline

  • Experimental
    Nasal irrigation with isotonic saline

    0.5-2 ml isotonic saline in each nostril administered as nasal drops

    Other: Nasal irrigation with isotonic saline

  • No intervention
    No treatment with saline

    These children will not receive any treatment with isotonic saline, but superficial suctioning of nasal secretions as needed (as part of standard care).

Interventions

  • OtherNebulized isotonic saline

    The intervention will constitute nebulized isotonic saline.

  • OtherNasal irrigation with isotonic saline

    The intervention will constitute isotonic saline administered as nasal drops.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Duration of hospitalization

    In hours

    Time frame: 0-7 days typically (max 14 days)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Number of participants needing respiratory support

    The need for respiratory support with nasal continuous positive airway pressure or high-flow oxygen therapy.

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  2. Number of participants being readmitted after discharge

    If readmitted to the hospital

    Time frame: 30 days after discharge

  3. Respiratory severity score

    Respiratory Severity Score with Heart Rate (RSS-HR), scale from 0-12, higher score means worse outcome.

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  4. Number of participants needing oxygen therapy

    Need for oxygen therapy

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  5. Number of participants needing transfer to ICU or SICU

    Transfer to the intensive care unit or semi-intensive care unit

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  6. Health-related Quality of Life

    Health-related Quality of Life questionnaire developed by Díez-Gandía et al. (PMID: 34488668) including 12 items. Item responses will be scored using the following algorithm (unweighted method): (1) Each response item will be assigned a value according to its gravity (1 = best level or 9 = worst level). (2) The sum of the scores will be standardized using the min-max normalization to a 0-1-point scale, with 1 indicating the best quality of life and 0 the worst.

    Time frame: Up to one month after discharge

  7. Fluid supplements

    Requirement of fluid supplements either by nasogastric tube or intravenous

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  8. pCO2

    Highest pCO2 measured

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  9. Number of participants needing to switch treatment

    Clinician-initiated switch to the opposite treatment from the one they were randomized to

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  10. Number of participants with visible distress

    Visible distress in the child during delivery of treatment

    Time frame: During admission (up to day 14)

  11. Parents satisfaction

    Parents satisfaction with the given treatment, questionnaire developed by the investigators exploring satisfaction of 3 items on a scale from 1-10 (total score from 3-30) where higher score means better outcome.

    Time frame: Up to one month after discharge

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — We have planned to share all IPD with other researchers upon request.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form, Clinical study report, Analytic code

Time frame: We have planned to share all IPD with other researchers upon request 5 years after publication.

Access criteria: Researchers who request access.

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jun 15, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05902702
Lead sponsor
Slagelse Hospital
Collaborators
Copenhagen University Hospital at Herlev, Zealand University Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Hvidovre, Holbaek Sygehus, Nordsjaellands Hospital, Nykøbing Falster Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jun 15, 2023
Start date
Sep 2023 (estimated)
Primary completion
Sep 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Sep 2029 (estimated)
Last update
Jun 15, 2023

Study contacts

Ann-Marie M Schoos, MD, PhD
Contact
annms@regionsjaelland.dk
+45 20681250
Maren J Rytter, MD, PhD
Contact
mjry@regionsjaelland.dk
Ann-Marie M Schoos, MD, PhD
principal investigator · Slagelse Hospital

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Jun 2023. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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