According to many authors, chronic cough is defined as cough lasting more than 8 weeks, as this is the time during which bronchial hyperactivity after an infection normally persists.
Of course, as cough is a very unpleasant problem, we shall seek for the cause as soon as youvisit our clinic, no matter how long the cough persists.
The causes of persisting cough are manifold, from infection, lung disease, systemic diseases a.o. to reflux disease, which is something our clinic deals with successfully.
It is important to know that there is also a group of so-called post viral neuropathies, of which chronic cough is also a symptom, and this cough is treated in a special way.
A patient may have several causes simultaneously.
Treatment of chronic cough requires knowledge of all possible causes and a broad diapason of therapeutic modalities, from antibiotics to proton pump inhibitors (PPI) GABA agonists, analgetics and antidepressives, which are known to be of help to patients with chronic cough.
In children the most common cause of chronic cough is an unadequately treated infection of the upper respiratory tract, which causes flow of secretion into the lower respiratory tract.
Cough requires ENT examination, examination by a pulmologist, MRI/MSCT of the lungs, blood-tests (from basic to immunologic) a.o., tracheo-bronchoscopy ,esophago-gastroduodenoscopy and other examinations.