Some use prednisone for 5 days, some for 8 days. Some begin tapering the dose to avoid adrenal suppression at 5 days, some begin at 8 or 10 days. Clinical effects of oral or intravenous administration of glucocorticoids may not be seen for 6 to 24 hours, but high-dose inhaled glucocorticoid therapy may act more rapidly. In patients with a mild asthma exacerbation who are treated in an outpatient setting, randomized, controlled studies have demonstrated that therapy with oral, intravenous, or high-dose inhaled glucocorticoids is clinically comparable. In patients with a severe asthma exacerbation who require hospitalization, intravenous glucocorticoid therapy is recommended.
Fewer data exist regarding duration of glucocorticoid therapy.
However, the current recommendation is to taper the dose over 8 to 10 days, beginning about 48 hours after initiation of therapy. Bedeviling to sufferers and exasperating to practitioners, canker sores remain as enigmatic as ever. These innocuous-appearing but painful superficial mucosal ulcers, which affect at least half of the population at some time, typically resolve spontaneously within 7 to 10 days. No proven prophylaxis exists. Although they are sometimes associated with vitamin or mineral deficiencies, gastrointestinal inflammatory disorders, or HIV infection, canker sores generally occur without warning in genetically susceptible people after minor trauma to the oral mucosa.