The mortality rate of bronchial asthma has shown a downward trend in recent years. This has resulted from the availability of effective bronchodilators, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory glucocorticoids, and mechanical aids to respiration. The asphyxial phenomena of intractable asthma, infectious complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia, and cardiac failure still account for most asthmatic deaths. Certain previously unknown terminal patterns, however, have been recognized and some of them relate to untoward effects of the treatment. Further reduction in the asthma mortality rate will require meticulous attention to therapeutic indications and the various complications along with an increasing awareness of the occasionally adverse consequences of some forms of treatment.