The Impact of Changing from Prednisolone to Dexamethasone for the Management of Wheeze in Children- A Service Evaluation
James Thyng
Northampton General Hospital, Cliftonville, Northampton, NN1 5BD, England.
Lynn Cunningham
Children’s Emergency Department, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE1 5WW, England.
Susanne McKinley
Children’s Emergency Department, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE1 5WW, England.
Felix Hay
Children’s Emergency Department, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE1 5WW, England.
Catherine Nunn
Children’s Emergency Department, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE1 5WW, England.
Damian Roland *
Children’s Emergency Department, Paediatric Emergency Medicine Leicester Academic (PEMLA) Group, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE1 5WW, England and SAPPHIRE Group, Health Sciences, Leicester University, Leicester, England.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Dexamethasone has become a popular alternative to Prednisolone as an oral steroid used for wheeze in children in many Paediatric Emergency Departments. It has proved non-inferior to Prednisolone in several studies [1,2] and its main advantages are single dose requirement and greater tolerability in children [3,4]. However, to the best of our knowledge there are no studies looking into the differences in re-attendance rates. Using our local Electronic Health Records, we extracted data of all over 5-year olds presenting with asthma and wheeze for 21 months of Prednisolone data and 15 months of Dexamethasone and found no statistically significant increase in re-attendance rates.
Keywords: Asthma, corticosteroids, dexamethasone, prednisolone, wheeze