Advanced medical research studies have brought to light yet another discovery which says that corticosteroids in particular can prove to be highly beneficial when used for the treatment related to bacterial infections like bacterial meningitis. Athletes are usually known to use anabolic steroids to enhance muscle growth but corticosteroids have proved to be of great advantage for patients suffering from pneumonia.
Studies which have stated these results have taken place at UT Southwestern where the tests were first carried out on mice infected with severe bacterial pneumonia. The outcome of the experiment clearly showed that the ones treated with antibiotics along with steroids show lesser traces of inflammation in the lungs than the ones only treated with antibiotics.
From news-medical.net:
Adding corticosteroids to traditional antimicrobial therapy might help people with pneumonia recover more quickly than with antibiotics alone, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have found.
In a study available online and in a future issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers at UT Southwestern show that mice infected with a type of severe bacterial pneumonia and subsequently treated with steroids and antibiotics recovered faster and had far less inflammation in their lungs than mice treated with antibiotics alone.
“Some people might think that if you give steroids, it would counteract the effect of the antibiotic,” said Dr. Robert Hardy, associate professor of internal medicine and pediatrics and the study’s senior author. “But it turns out you need the antibiotic to kill the bug and the steroid to make the inflammation in the lung from the infection get better. The steroids don’t kill the bugs, but they do help restore health.”
In most cases the treatment of such pneumonia infections involves antimicrobials only which remain to be the primary therapy till date but a great many reports have added to prove that when combined with corticosteroids, they have bettered the treatment regimen of patients suffering from severe cases of pneumonia.
One more good news is that the combination of antibiotics and steroids have not only cured patients suffering from pneumonia but has have also come up as a potential treatment for people suffering from asthma patients as well. Where doctors on one hand still think that it is too early to recommend corticosteroids as standard treatment for patients suffering from bacterial pneumonia but once clinical studies lend their approval, it can be made to put to use.
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