Back to Search
Start Over
Adjunct prednisone therapy for patients with community-acquired pneumonia
- Source :
- Internal and emergency medicine. 10(5)
- Publication Year :
- 2015
-
Abstract
- Pneumonia is one of the principal causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite the advances in antibiotic therapies and in preventive measures [1]. The intense inflammatory response that was of fundamental importance in the pre-antibiotics era nowadays might be excessive. In fact, it can lead to multiple organ failure, thus causing more harm than benefit [2]. Corticosteroids have a strong antiinflammatory effect; therefore, their use in pneumonia has been studied for a long time. One of the most important trials was recently published by Meijvis [3]. A 4-day course of 5 mg of dexamethasone was compared to placebo, showing a 1-day reduction in hospital stay, but no difference in mortality. A meta-analysis by Nie [4] does not find any significant reduction in pneumonia overall mortality; however, a subgroup analysis shows a significant reduction in mortality in both studies considering patients with severe pneumonias and treating subjects for more than 5 days. Therefore, the authors conclude that adequately powered double-blind randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are warranted to give recommendations for the use of steroids in pneumonia. Summary
- Subjects :
- Adult
medicine.medical_specialty
medicine.drug_class
Antibiotics
Subgroup analysis
Placebo
law.invention
Community-acquired pneumonia
Randomized controlled trial
Double-Blind Method
Prednisone
law
Internal Medicine
medicine
Humans
Intensive care medicine
Glucocorticoids
Dexamethasone
business.industry
Pneumonia
medicine.disease
Community-Acquired Infections
Hospitalization
Treatment Outcome
Emergency Medicine
business
medicine.drug
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19709366
- Volume :
- 10
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Internal and emergency medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....28cdf0dbd61305a53441659b261b26e2