In the News: Study shows post-COVID rise in pediatric ICU admission for bronchiolitis

Jonathan H. Pelletier, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at NEOMED and pediatric intensivist at Akron Children’s Hospital, recently discussed the results of a retrospective cross-sectional study of admissions for bronchiolitis with the publication Healio.

With data from 41 U.S. children’s hospitals, Dr. Pelletier and colleagues evaluated 492,286 admissions for bronchiolitis in children between July 2010 and June 2023, to find out how admissions have changed from before the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were published on the JAMA Network.

Among children younger than 5, admissions for bronchiolitis and viral pneumonia increased from 35,623 before the pandemic to 66,767 in the 2022 to 2023 season. The age group with the largest increase in admissions was 24- to 59-month-olds, with 5,169 admissions before COVID-19 and 13,973 during the pandemic.

“This study continues to ‘sound the alarm’ that ICU admissions for bronchiolitis are rising and are contributing to critical pediatric bed shortages,” Dr. Pelletier said in the Healio interview. “My hope would be that future studies will examine whether these trends are related to changes in viral respiratory illness, care practices or both.”

Read ‘Last season’s bronchiolitis hospitalizations higher than pre-pandemic rates’ in Healio

Read ‘Admissions for Bronchiolitis at Children’s Hospitals Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic’ on JAMA Network