Upper Respiratory Tract Comorbidities in Children with Wheezing

Multimorbidity is a common problem in patients with chronic diseases such as asthma/recurrent wheezing and may cause poor quality of life and management of diseases, and increased health care utilizations. Multimorbidity is more common especially in patients with difficult treated and/or severe asthma. Treating the multimorbidities may minimize future asthma exacerbations and improve the asthma treatment. Upper respiratory co-morbidities are common and important in diagnosis and management of children with recurrent wheezing/asthma, because they may be confused with wheezing and cause unnecessary treatments, or they may sometimes contribute to poor disease control by aggravating symptoms. Therefore, recognizing and treating upper respiratory comorbidities in asthma/recurrent wheezing may improve their outcomes. This chapter is an overview of the prevalence, clinical features, diagnosis and management of the upper respiratory co-morbidities (chronic-rhinosinusitis, nasal polyposis, allergic rhinitis, vocal cord dysfunction, and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome) in children with recurrent wheezing/asthma.