The Impact of Changing from Prednisolone to Dexamethasone for the Management of Wheeze in Children- A Service Evaluation

Abstract

Dexamethasone has become a popular alternative to Prednisolone as an oral steroid used for wheeze in children in many Paediatric Emergency Departments. It has proved non-inferior to Prednisolone in several studies [1,2] and its main advantages are single dose requirement and greater tolerability in children [3,4]. However, to the best of our knowledge there are no studies looking into the differences in re-attendance rates. Using our local Electronic Health Records, we extracted data of all over 5-year olds presenting with asthma and wheeze for 21 months of Prednisolone data and 15 months of Dexamethasone and found no statistically significant increase in re-attendance rates.