Dexamethasone reduced the incidence of children with mild croup who returned for medical care
Q Does dexamethasone reduce the incidence of children with mild croup who return for medical care more than placebo?
METHODS
Design:
randomised placebo controlled trial.
Allocation:
unclear allocation concealment.
Blinding:
blinded (patients and data analysts).
Follow up period:
7 days after treatment.
Setting:
4 paediatric emergency departments (EDs) in Canada.
Patients:
720 children (mean age 35 mo, 61% boys) with mild croup (onset of a seal like, barking cough in the previous 72 h and ⩽2 out of 17 points on a validated croup scoring system). Exclusion criteria included other respiratory disorders, severe systemic disease, immune dysfunction, corticosteroids within the previous 2 weeks, epinephrine for respiratory distress, and previous ED visit for this croup episode.
Intervention:
single oral dose of dexamethasone suspension (12.5 ml DM phosphate injection plus 50 ml of cherry flavoured syrup, 0.6 mg/kg of body weight (maximum 20 mg) (n = 359) or placebo (10 ml of distilled water plus …
