Steroids Effect as Adjuvant Therapy toward Length of Stay and Clinical Symptoms in Pediatric with Pneumonia

Abstract

Steroid therapy in children with pneumonia is an adjuvant therapy that has inhibitor inflammatory activity which can suppress the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and potentially prevent the inflammatory response. Some studies showed that steroids did not give beneficial effects in the treatment of patients with pneumonia, while the other studies showed that steroids can reduce the length of stay in hospital. The purpose of this study was to observe the effect of steroid on the length of stay and clinical symptoms in pediatric patients with pneumonia. This was an observational study with a prospective method in patients with pneumonia in PKU Muhammadiyah Bantul Hospital Yogyakarta from September 2015 until January 2016. A total of fifty one patients participated as subjects of this study. This study consisted of two groups, which were non‑steroid group (n=25) and steroid group (n=26). Group of non‑steroid and steroid had average value of length of stay of 5 (3–10) days and 4 (3–10) days, respectively. The duration of clinical symptoms of patients in the steroid and non‑steroid group in a row was 2 (0–6) days and 2 (0–7) days for symptoms of fever, 4 (1–10) days and 5 (2–10) days for symptoms of cough, 1 (0–5) days and 1 (0–10) days for symptoms of shortness, and 1 (0–5) days and 1 (0–9) days for symptoms of retraction. The conclusion of this study is steroid has not given significant effects on the length of stay and clinical symptoms in pediatric patients with pneumonia.