Effect and safety of an outpatient traditional medicine treatment for asthma in 26 patients from Cota, Colombia: a case series

Abstract

The prevalence, morbidity and costs of asthma care have increased worldwide. This study describes the effect and safety of an outpatient medical treatment with traditional medicine for asthma, through a retrospective case series with patients admitted to outpatient consultation from 1995 to 2015 in Cota, Colombia. Analyzing 26 cases with a clinical diagnosis of asthma, during the treatment 34.6% (9/26) did not present episodes of uncontrolled asthma and 61.5% (16/26) were classified as controlled asthma in their last consultation of control. 88.4% (23/26) of the patients reported no adverse reactions and the three reported were mild. The results allow to generate hypotheses about the effectiveness and safety of an outpatient treatment based on the incorporation of resources from traditional medicine. These observations could be explored with experimental studies to determine their long-term effectiveness, safety and low cost.