According to the findings of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), steroid medication does not prove helpful for treating lower respiratory infections in children. Published in the issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, the study reported that the use of steroids to treat bronchiolitis, a common viral lower respiratory infection in infants, do not thwart hospitalization and even not improve their respiratory symptoms.

It seems that the study would help in resolving controversies from prior researches and is expected to guide treatment procedures for the most common cause of infant hospitalization. It compared hospitalization rates for more than 500 children, aged between 2 months to 12 months, who were suffering with moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis. Children were treated with either a dose of dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid form of steroid medication) or a placebo and evaluated after one hour and again at four hours.

PECARN conducted the study in the emergency departments at 20 hospitals throughout the United States between November and April for a three-year period. Professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah and the principal investigator on the study, Howard M. Corneli said, “We learned that a commonly used treatment doesn’t work.” He further added, “Now that we’ve demonstrated glucocorticoids aren’t effective in treating bronchiolitis, we can focus our efforts on finding better treatments and better preventive strategies.”

From Science Daily:

The use of steroid medication to treat bronchiolitis – a common viral lower respiratory infection in infants — does not prevent hospitalization or improve their respiratory symptoms, according to a study published in the July 26 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. The findings by the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) resolve controversy from prior research and are expected to help guide treatment for the most common cause of infant hospitalization.

The study compared hospitalization rates for 600 children between the ages of 2 months and 12 months who visited emergency rooms with moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis. Patients were treated with either a dose of dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid form of steroid medication) or a placebo and evaluated after one hour, and again at four hours.

Corneli also suggested that the best solution to fight the problem of bronchiolitis would be a vaccine for Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), which is the most ommon cause of bronchiolitis. “This study provides solid evidence to guide treatment of this common illness,” said Joseph Zorc, M.D., an emergency physician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and a lead co-investigator.

Although, both the physicians noted that glucocorticoid medications still play an important role in treatment of other respiratory illnesses of childhood such as asthma and croup. They also pointed out these medications are not the androgenic steroids as abused by athletes by sometimes.

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Tags: dexamethasone, lower respiratory infection, Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, steroids

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