Objective  To investigate the therapeutic effect of dexamethasone on children with severe community acquired pneumonia ( CAP) .
Methods  120 children with severe CAP admitted from January 2009 to June 2011 were recruited in the study. The patients were randomly divided into a dexamethasone group ( n = 62) and a control group ( n = 58) . The patients in the dexamethasone group received additional dexamethasone intravenous injection for 3 days ( 0. 2-0. 4 mg· kg- 1 · d- 1 , qd) on the basic treatment of the control group. Length of hospital stay, serum C reactive protein ( CRP) concentration on 4th day after admission, overall efficacy, mortality, incidence of adverse events during treatment were compared between the two groups.
Results  Median length hospital stay was 8 days in the dexamethasone group compared with 9 days in the control group without significant difference ( P  gt;0. 05) . The serumCRP concentration on 4th day was lower in the dexamethasone group than that in the control group [ ( 23. 4 ±5. 6) mmol /L vs. ( 41. 3 ±6. 2) mmol /L, P  lt;0. 05] . The overall efficacy was higher in the dexamethasone group than that in the control group ( 88. 7% vs. 74. 1% , P  lt; 0. 05) . The in-hospital mortality and incidence of severe adverse events were not significantly different between the two groups ( P  gt; 0. 05) .
Conclusions  Dexamethasone treatment is associated with a significant attenuation in systematic inflammatory response, but does not decrease mortality in hospitalized children with severe CAP.

Citation： LI Juan,WU Longfei. Therapeutic Effects of Dexamethasone on Children with Severe Community Acquired Pneumonia. Chinese Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2012, 11(3): 249-252. doi: Copy