Chronic cough in children — structured oral (viva)

Branch 1 — Definition and first move

Examiner: "This child has coughed for six weeks. What is your definition of chronic cough, and what is the first thing you want to establish?" Candidate: Chronic cough in a child is a daily cough persisting for more than four weeks, shorter than the adult eight-week threshold because a child coughing at a month usually has a treatable cause. My first move is to establish whether the cough is wet or dry — here it is wet, which immediately points me toward suppurative airway disease rather than a benign non-specific cough. ^[1]