Evaluation of efficiency and safety of oral corticosteroid therapy in children patients with exacerbations of asthma: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Asthma is the most frequently occurring obstructive airway disease, it inflicts the highest morbidity among children. Among the paediatric populace, severe exacerbations of asthma are a common reason behind patient consultations and hospitalizations. Oral corticosteroids are a primary component in the treatment of asthma exacerbations; however, there is controversy regarding how corticosteroids functions. METHODS: The present review will conduct a search on MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Chinese BioMedical Literature. The search will cover the databases from their beginning to May 2021. The search aims to identify all the randomized controlled studies on oral corticosteroids in treating children with asthma exacerbations. Two independent authors will choose studies, perform data extraction, and use an appropriate tool to assess the bias risk in the selected articles. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis will be performed to assess the robustness of the results. The RevMan (version 5.3) software will be employed to perform data synthesis and statistical analysis. RESULTS: This study will examine the efficiency and safeness of oral corticosteroid therapy to treat children with asthma exacerbations by pooling the results of individual studies. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study will provide vigorous evidence to judge whether oral corticosteroid therapy is an efficiency strategy to treat patients with asthmatic exacerbations. OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: May 20, 2021.osf.io/3ghjt. (https://osf.io/3ghjt/).