Do Pediatric Emergency Physicians Comply With Guideline Recommendations in Management of Patients With Acute Urticaria?

Objectives: To determine the level of knowledge and practical preferences of pediatricians regarding acute urticaria (AU) management and to assess the effects of training provided in accordance with the current urticaria guideline recommendations on pediatricians who work in the pediatric emergency department (PED).

Methods: A theoretical training was provided to pediatricians regarding the diagnosis and treatment of AU in line with current urticaria guideline recommendations. Before the training, pediatricians completed a 10-item questionnaire. This prospective study assesses their treatment approaches in patients admitted to PED because of AU during the 6-month period before and the 1-year period after training.

Results: Four hundred seventeen children in the pretraining and 1085 children in the posttraining periods were treated for AU in PED. Forty-eight pediatricians participated in the training. According to their questionnaire responses, 35% of them used only H1 antihistamine (AH) treatment, 50% used second-generation H1 AH (2nd-GAH) as AHs, 75% preferred the oral route of administration, and 85.4% did not administer systemic corticosteroid (sCS) to all patients. Comparing the practice approaches of the pediatricians in the pretraining and posttraining periods, first-generation H1 antihistamine (1st-GAH) preference rate decreased from 68.4% to 30.3% and the sCS preference rate decreased from 58.5% to 25.7%, while the 2nd-GAH preference rate increased from 31.7% to 69.7% (P < 0.001 for all). No treatments were prescribed for 10.8% of patients before the training and 3% after the training during discharge at home (P < 0.05). Comparing the home treatment choices of the pediatricians in the pretraining and posttraining periods, 1st-GAH preference rate decreased from 11.5% to 5%, while the 2nd-GAH preference rate increased from 78.7% to 91.5% (for both parameters, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Practical treatment preferences of pediatricians in the treatment of children with AU differ considerably from both current guideline recommendations and their own theoretical knowledge, and training can enhance pediatricians' compliance with current guideline recommendations.