Effectiveness of single dose oral dexamethasone versus multidose prednisolone for treatment of acute exacerbations of asthma among children

INTRODUCTION: Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and worldwide its prevalence has increased dramatically in the last three decades. We aimed to compare single dose oral dexamethasone versus multiple doses of oral prednisolone in children with acute exacerbation of asthma in terms of post treatment requirement of systemic steroids. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This Randomized control trial has been conducted in the Department of paediatrics, KRL Hospital, Islamabad from Dec 2018 to June 2019.312 patients between the age of 2–12 years patients were randomized into Group A receiving a STAT single dose of oral dexamethasone 0.3 mg/kg and Group B receiving prednisolone 1 mg/kg/day followed by two doses on Day 2 and 3. further dose of systemic steroids were ascertained through PRAM score. RESULTS: In this study mean age in Group A was 8 years with SD ± 5.68 while mean age in Group B was 7 years with SD ± 6.12. In Group A 58% patients were male and 42% patients were female. Whereas in Group B 59% patients were male and 41% patients were female. In Group A 12% patients had further requirement of systemic steroids while in Group B 18% patients had further requirement of systemic steroids while 82% patients didn't had further requirement of systemic steroids. CONCLUSION: Our study concludes that post treatment requirement of systemic steroids is less in single dose oral dexamethasone as compare to multiple doses of oral prednisolone in children with acute exacerbation of asthma.