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Palliative cancer care - cough - Management
What dose regimen for nebulized sodium chloride 0.9% should I use?
- When nebulized 0.9% saline solution is used to ease cough associated with tenacious secretions [Ahmedzai and Davis, 1997; Twycross and Wilcock, 2001; Twycross et al, 2002]:
- Initially use 2.5 mL to 5 mL four times a day.
- If greater symptomatic relief is required, gradually increase nebulizer use to up to every 2 hours.
- A very small trial (n = 8) found use of nebulized saline for approximately 5 minutes prior to chest physiotherapy in people with bronchiectasis may give more benefit than use of saline alone [Sutton et al, 1988]. Note: availability of physiotherapy in the community may be limited.
- People should be reviewed after 48 hours to check that they are adequately responding and that there are no usability problems [Twycross et al, 2002].
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