The study excluded patients who required mechanical ventilation. There was only a difference of one day in nonventilated patients in this study. The benefits of systemic steroids could be substantial in the hospital setting. With a mean reduction in length of stay of 0.43 days per patient, the authors estimate that approximately 51,600 hospital days could potentially saved through the use of steroid treatment. Complications of steroids were not evaluated such as gastrointestinal bleeding and infections.
Steroids are relatively inexpensive.
If they do shorten hospital length of stay, they would be cost-effective. A study by Bulow et al. Patients were followed up at 1 month and one year after discharge. The frequency of patients admitted for respiratory infections, those being treated for asthma and the number coughing at night was not statistically different between the two groups.