Steroids have benefits in severe pneumonia: study

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adding a steroid to standard antibiotic therapy can significantly reduce mortality in people suffering from severe pneumonia, Spanish researchers report based on a look back at 308 patients who were hospitalized with severe pneumonia.

According to Dr. C. Garcia-Vidal, from Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge in Barcelona, and colleagues, the group included 238 patients, or 77 percent, who were treated with antibiotics alone and 70 (23 percent) who were treated with antibiotics plus steroid therapy.

Steroid use was associated with a significant 72 percent reduction in deaths at 30 days, the researchers report in the European Respiratory Journal.

Prior research has shown elevated levels of both local and circulating inflammatory proteins in patients with community-acquired pneumonia, the investigators note. Thus, it has been theorized that treatment with systemic steroids may have a beneficial effect in attenuating inflammation and improving patient outcomes. Whether this actually occurs, particularly in patients already receiving standard antibiotic therapy, however, was unclear, until now.

The current results, the authors say, "are encouraging" and suggest that systemic steroids may help decrease mortality in cases of severe pneumonia.

SOURCE: European Respiratory Journal, October 26, 2007.