Role of Corticosteroids in Influenza Pneumonia (H1N1) Patients

Abstract

Background and objective: Although the benefits of systemic corticosteroids in pneumonia are not clear, their use is frequent in clinical practice. We described the patients' characteristics, demographics and the effect of steroids in Influenza pneumonia Hemagglutinin Type 1 and Neuraminidase Type 1 (H1N1) patients in terms of length of hospital stay. METHODS: The study design was a retrospective observational study, which consisted of patients presenting with H1N1 infection to the department of Emergency medicine at tertiary referral centre. We investigated all cases admitted with diagnosis of H1N1 pneumonia, confirmed by collecting throat swabs and doing Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) for H1N1 infection during July 2009 to February 2011. RESULTS: Of the 115 patients, 30 patients have been administered steroids. Within those 30 patients 20 have stayed in ICU with mean 7.45 ± 5.7 days. In that group of 20 patients, 10 patients have stayed in ICU alone, 10 patients have stayed in ICU and ward with mean 10.3±6.5 and 13.6±7.4 days respectively. 10 patients have stayed only in ward with mean days of 4.8±1.9. The overall mean hospital stay is 9.8±6.6 days. It is found that there is a significant statistical relationship between corticosteroid administration and reduced hospital stay (P=0.000).