Prepared and published by Update Software Ltd . All rights reserved. Cochrane reviews are regularly checked and updated if necessary.
Pulmonary sarcoidosis is a common condition with an unpredictable course.
Oral or inhaled steroids are widely used in its treatment, but there is no consensus about when and in whom therapy should be initiated, what dose should be given and for how long. Corticosteroids given for several months have deleterious side-effects so it is important to know whether they have any maintained benefit in pulmonary sarcoidosis. Bibliographies of retrieved RCTs and reviews were searched for additional RCTs. Pharmaceutical companies and authors of identified RCTs were contacted for other published and unpublished studies. Outcomes were analysed as continuous and dichotomous outcomes, using standard statistical techniques.