Early treatment with corticosteroids in patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia: a randomized clinical trial.
BACKGROUND
Corticosteroids have been evaluated for management of severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MP) in children. However, it is unclear whether the timing of treatment with corticosteroids affects the patients' clinical outcome.


METHODS
We did a prospective randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effect of early use of corticosteroids. Fifty-three patients were randomly assigned to treatment with corticosteroids within 24 h after admission (cases), and 53 patients were treated 72 h after admission (control patients).


RESULTS
Cases had a shorter fever duration [6 days (range 5-11) vs. 10 days (range 8-23), p < 0.001] and length of hospital stay [8 days (range 5-15) vs. 10 days (range 5-21), p = 0.001]. Four cases (1.9%) had a complete radiographic resolution time >4 weeks compared with 10 control patients (17.5%; p = 0.038; Table 2).


CONCLUSIONS
Early treatment with corticosteroids was associated with a better outcome in patients with severe MP.
Department of Pediatrics, The First People's Hospital of Wujiang, Wujiang 215200, Jiangsu, China.
Lizhen
L
Huang
Department of Pediatrics, The First People's Hospital of Wujiang, Wujiang 215200, Jiangsu, China.
Xiang
X
Gao
Department of Pediatrics, The First People's Hospital of Wujiang, Wujiang 215200, Jiangsu, China jwjhlz@163.com.
Meiyuan
M
Chen
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D009177:Mycoplasma pneumoniae / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011019:Pneumonia, Mycoplasma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D000305:Adrenal Cortex Hormones
Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia; corticosteroids