Pediatric Emergency Care
Using a Single Dose of Dexamethasone at 0.6 Versus 0.15 mg/kg of Body Weight for the Treatment of Croup
By Alex Aregbesola, Jennifer Turnbull, Banke Oketola and 6 others.
Abstract
Objective
To compare the effectiveness and adverse events associated with treating children with croup with dexamethasone at 0.15 versus 0.6 mg/kg body weight.
Methods
This retrospective cohort study included children (younger than 18 y) with a clinical diagnosis of croup in 4 pediatric emergency departments (EDs) between January 2017 and December 2019. The primary outcome was return visit to the ED for croup within 7 days, and the secondary outcomes were hospitalization within 7 days and occurrence of adverse events within 30 days. Both χ 2 tests and logistic regression models were used to compare differences in the proportions of children with ED return visits, hospitalizations, and adverse events associated with dose.