A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 3 studies with a total of 5 905 subjects (including 341 children aged 4 to 11). In patients with mild asthma who do not need maintenance treatment, no clinically important advantages of budesonide/formoterol as reliever were found in comparison to formoterol as reliever. In more severe asthma (not controlled on high doses of inhaled corticosteroids, at least one exacerbation in the previous year), one adult study found a reduction in exacerbations requiring oral corticosteroids compared to terbutaline (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.42 to 0.74). Hospitalisations related to asthma were not statistically significantly reduced in the two studies comparing budesonide/formoterol for maintenance and relief with the same dose of budesonide/formoterol for maintenance with terbutaline for relief (OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.40 to 1.16).
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by inconsistency (heterogeneity in patient populations, interventions and outcomes).
Primary/Secondary Keywords