Diagnosed With Bronchitis. Prescribed With Prednisone. Found Yellow Phlegm With Cough. How Long Will This Last?

Posted on Thu, 12 Dec 2013

Question: I have an acute case of bronchitis for about 10 days...chest x ray shows bronchitis, initially said to be viral although Antibiotic started 3 or 4 days ago along with prednisone about 3 days ago. Using Cough suppresent with expectorant...some better, but not well and still coughing up some yellow phlegm with difficulty. How long should this last?? Anything I can do to stop coughing spells laying down at night?

Answered by Dr. Gyanshankar Mishra (12 days later)

Brief Answer: Acute bronchitis should subside in 2 weeks Detailed Answer: Hi, Thanks for posting the query on XXXXXXX After going through your query, I would like to comment the following: 1. You seem to be suffering from acute bronchitis. It should normally respond to 2 weeks of antibiotic treatment. 2. Being an ex smoker places you at a risk of COPD / chronic bronchitis. Since you have been started on Prednisone, there is a possibility of associated airway hyperresponsiveness/ bronchospasm. I would recommend you to get clinically examined from a Pulmonologist as soon as possible. 3. Detailed clinical evaluation including Xray chest and pulmonary function test will be required. If required sputum examination needs to be done. 4. Please do not take cough suppressant and cough expectorant at the same time. 5. Currently you are on augmentin which is a good first line antibiotic. If there is associated airway obstruction, wheezing episodes then inhalers and certain other oral medications will be required. 6. Thus at present you need to get yourself clinically evaluated by Pulmonologist. I hope I have answered your query. I will be glad to answer follow up queries if any. Please accept my answer if you have no follow up queries. Regards Dr. Gyanshankar Mishra MBBS MD DNB Consultant Pulmonologist

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar