Short Course Of Steroids Research Articles

Use and abuse of systemic corticosteroid therapy

Steroid-responsive acute dermatoses should be treated with a single morning dose of prednisone for approximately 2 weeks. It is necessary to "taper" a short course of oral prednisone given by this method. Chronic dermatoses should be treated whenever possible with prednisone used in the morning and on alternate days. This method is effective, is free of most side effects, and suppresses the HPA axis minimally. There are few real advantages in using intramuscular corticosteroids. TAC is an unusually strong suppressor of the HPA axis. For chronic dermatoses, a less suppressive preparation might best be chosen if the physician feels that the intramuscular route is the most reasonable one. In any event TAC should never be used more often than every two months. Finally, the time-course of HPA recovery following short courses of steroids is presently unknown. Nonetheless, some astute critics of steroid metabolism have felt obliged to advise us that individuals who have received from 1 to 4 weeks of suppressive steroid treatment should be suspect as to the integrity of their HPA axis in stressful situations for up to one year. The withdrawal from, as well as the use of, systemic corticosteroids requires a creative and critical physician.

Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura in children: should corticosteroids be given?

Life-threatening hemorrhages occur in about 2% of children with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), the majority during the first month of illness. The administration of corticosteroids to patients with ITP has been shown to improve platelet economy mainly through reduction of phagocytosis in the spleen. Since the risk of a short course of steroids in low dosage is small, it seems reasonable to administer them to patients with ITP during the period of greatest risk.