Intensive care medicine
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Intensive care medicine · Sep 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyDexamethasone pretreatment for 24 h versus 6 h for prevention of postextubation airway obstruction in children: a randomized double-blind trial.
Multidose steroid pretreatment is effective in preventing postextubation airway obstruction (PEAO) in adults, however controversy continues for children. This study was designed as a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial to compare the effect of 24-h pretreatment with dexamethasone (24hPD) versus 6-h pretreatment (6hPD) on PEAO and reintubation in children at a tertiary care hospital in a developing economy. ⋯ 24-h pretreatment with multidose dexamethasone reduced the incidence of PEAO and the time to recover from it. 24hPD should be considered for high-risk children intubated for >48 h in the study setting. Further studies with larger sample size from different socioeconomic background are desirable to validate these findings.