Effectiveness and Outcome of Methylprednisolone versus Hydrocortisone in Treatment of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome(ARDS)
Authors: Elbrassi S A S , Maghawry K M , Ali R M M , Abdelhafiez R H 
Published: May 2020

Introduction

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the clinical manifestation of severe acute lung injury. It is characterized by dyspnea, profound hypoxemia, diffuse bilateral infiltrates secondary to non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema on chest radiography, and decreased lung compliance and systemic inflammations are the pathophysiologic hallmarks of this syndrome and the use of low-dose corticosteroids was associated with improved mortality and morbidity outcomes without increased adverse reactions.

Aim

The aim of this study is to compare the outcome and effectiveness of hydrocortisone to methylprednisolone in treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome in critically ill adult patients.

Patients

The current study was performed as a randomized prospective observational study on critically ill patients at age between 18-85 years.

Methods

Critically ill patients diagnosis with ARDS were managed with standard treatment in addition to methylprednisolone 1mg/kg as loading dose followed by an infusion of 1 mg/kg/d for one week and then gradual tapering over two weeks as following (0.5 mg/kg/d in the second week and 0.25 mg/kg/d in the third week) or hydrocortisone 50mg given every six hours for one week.

Results

Mean age of included patients was 65.20 years with mean BMI 28.14 kg/m2, in our result the PaO2/FIO2 ratio revealed significant statistically increase in methylprednisolone-treated patients compared to hydrocortisone -treated patients (160.49±54.75, 138.55±60.99, P value 0.029), Regarding the inflammatory marker the results of the plasma level of C-reactive protein and d-dimer showed significant difference between both group, the result of SOFA score showed no significant different from day 1 to day 3 (8.25±3.11, 8.29±2.29 P value 0.980). But with the beginning of the fifth day was observed significant change in the results, methylprednisolone-treated patients compared to hydrocortisone -treated patients (8.28±3.84, 9.8±4.23, P value 0.036), Regarding to ICU length of stay and decrease duration of mechanical ventilation, the results of our study didn’t show significant different among both groups. The two groups showed a decrease in the time spended on the mechanical ventilation and the stay in the ICU before day7. According to the number of patient discharge from ICU at day 7 and the number of extubated patient at day 7, the results of our study didn’t show significant different among both groups.

Conclusion

Despite the both applied drug doses show improvement regarding the finial total outcome. However, Methylprednisolone showed superior benefit compare to Hydrocortisone in improvement of PaO2/FiO2 ratio, suppress systemic inflammation (CRP and D- dimer), increase extubated patient before day 7, increase number of patient discharge from ICU before day 7, reduction of SOFA score and hospital morality rate.

Recommendations

The study recommends to use of low dose methylprednisolone superior to hydrocortisone in treatment of ARDS. But, still more researches are need.