Steriods no Help in Meningitis
December 13th, 2007 | by Timothy Kintzel, M.D. |
A recent series of two studies was conducted to hopefully lend further support for the use of steroids (dexamethasone - not anabolic steroids illegally used by athletes) along with antibiotics in the treatment of bacterial meningitis. Researchers unfortunately found that the steroids were of no benefit - contradicting more positive studies done over the last few years. Some speculate that these trials, performed on patients in Vietnam and in Malawi (Sub-Saharan Africa) present a situation where different patient populations respond differently to the same treatment. They feel that patients in Asia and Africa have different co-morbidities (such as HIV) and strains of infection and may need to be treated differently than those in Europe and North America. Current recommendations are that steroids be used as adjunctive treatment - these studies raise questions and beg for larger trials.