Dexamethasone vs. prednisone for treatment of pediatric asthma exacerbations

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Created On: 25/02/2022

A meta-analysis was carried out to determine the tolerability and efficacy of dexamethasone as a substitute to prednisone/prednisolone to manage pediatric asthma exacerbations in the emergency department.

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Key take away

In the emergency department, dexamethasone is a suitable substitute to prednisone to mitigate acute pediatric asthma exacerbations.

Background

Method

An extensive literature search was done in various databases. The fixed-effects meta-analyses of selected outcomes were carried out by utilizing the data procured from the relevant studies identified using a priori eligibility criteria. The data from ten studies (3208 pediatric asthma volunteers [1592 prednisone-treated and1616 dexamethasone-treated], 4.77 years, 63% males) were utilized.

Result

Compared to the prednisone group, the dexamethasone group exhibited a substantially reduced risk of vomiting drug (risk ratio, 0.29). The emergency department stay between prednisone and dexamethasone-treated people was considerably distinct. However, it might not be clinically significant. The number of β-agonist treatments received by prednisone and dexamethasone-treated people was comparable.

Both prednisone and dexamethasone therapies were linked with improvements in asthma status evaluation scores. However, no profound difference was noted between the groups. Regarding hospital admission rate after relapse, hospitalization rate, and emergency department revisit rate, no profound inter-group difference was witnessed.

Conclusion

Both dexamethasone and prednisone led to comparable improvements in asthma status evaluation scores. Thus, dexamethasone can be used as a substitute for prednisone to manage pediatric asthma aggravations.