ABSTRACT
Acute asthma may be defined as airway obstruction that becomes clinically manifest over a relatively short period of time. The clinical manifestations include some combination of shortness of breath, cough, wheezing, and chest tightness. The obstruction may be mild and self-limited (exercise-induced asthma that resolves without therapy), or may be life threatening if not immediately addressed.1 Between these extremes one finds all gradations of obstruction that must be appropriately assessed and effectively managed to minimize morbidity and prevent mortality. This chapter deals with these episodes when control of this disease is lost.
