Objective: It is a study to evaluate the asthmatic patients admitted for an exacerbation as regards to their clinical features, severity of the attack and then mean hospital stay. This is a retrospective analysis of the medical records of these admitted asthmatic children. Methods: The patients were in the age group of 1 month to 12 years. The case records of patients admitted were reviewed by a set proforma filled for each patient.From the records details about the respiratory rate, use of accessory muscle and wheezing was found out. This was used to assess the severity of the attack by determining the pulmonary score (2). The Pulmonary Index (3) score is an aggregate of respiratory rate, wheezing, Inspiratory / Expiratory Ratio, accessory muscle use.Each assessed on a 3 point scale. A recent scoring system that has undergone validation trials is the pulmonary score(2) which is a modification of the pulmonary index(3) scoring by excluding the inspiratory / expiratory ratio and instead using respiratory rate dependent on age. The P.S. was used as an excellent correlation with PEFR in children for varying severity of asthma. The daily hospital score was assessed and the days taken to reach a score of ? 3 (mild asthma) and no symptoms, was calculated. The mean hospital stay of these patients was also determined and compared with their pulmonary score (2), age and number of exacerbations. The relationship between these, if any, was tested for significance. Results: We found that 36 males and 39 females admitted for acute exacerbation: the male/female ratio was 0.92:1. There were 28 children <2 years of age. In the 2-5 years age group 28 patients were present, where as only 19 patients were in the age group of 5-12 years. In 17 cases the attack of breathlessness was the first episode in life. Out of the remaining 58 patients of repetitive cough, breathlessness and wheeze; 41 (70.7%) patients were treated in the OPD and managed. Pulmonary score (2) of the patients were measured on admission and daily till discharge. On admission the mean pulmonary score (2) was 6.08 (range being 3-8). Hence majority of these patient admitted were in moderate attack 23 patients (30.6%) of the patient had severe attack of asthma on admission.We also calculated the number of days that the patient was hospitalised and found that these children stayed on an average of 2-4 days with median stay of 3 days. 19 patients were admitted for less than or equal to 2 days while 36 patients were admitted for more than 2 days but less than 5 days. Conclusion: 58.4% of admitted patients' pulmonary score(2) became mild i.e. 3 by 3.02 days (mean) and 3 days (median) but some of them were in the hospital for more than the actual number of days required there by increasing the hospital stay and expenses. Introduction Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases of the childhood. It has afflicted mankind since ages. It affects around 5–10 % of the children during their lifetime and prevalence is forever increasing (1) . “It is chronic inflammatory disorder characterised by episodic airway obstruction due to hyper-responsiveness of the airways to various endogenous and exogenous provocative stimuli reversed either by treatment or spontaneously” (1) .The basic defect in asthma is the allergic constitution and a hyper reactivity of airways to various stimuli including allergens, infections, drugs, weather, exercise & pollution.Because of its chronicity, asthma is the main cause for significant proportion of school days lost, psychosocial issues, multiple emergency visits and paediatric ward hospitalisations. Morbidity surpasses mortality due to its chronicity.Newer technology is responsible for reduction in morbidity of asthma. Anti-asthma medications with the help of newer devices in the inhaled form have aided in smoother long term control of bronchial asthma. Currently therapy consisting of inhaled steroids with or without long acting ?2 agonists is in vogue. The in
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