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Bronchiolitis is the most common cause of hospital admission for infants in the U.S. Although bronchodilators and steroids have been used to ameliorate this condition, results have been mixed, possibly because of small sample sizes. Now, with federal funding, investigators have evaluated the use of dexamethasone in a large, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
The study involved 600 infants, aged 2 to 12 months, who presented with moderate-to-severe bronchiolitis (defined as first episode of wheezing) at 1 of 20 emergency departments (EDs) in the U.S. Half of the infants received a single dose of dexamethasone (1 mg/kg orally) in the ED, and half received placebo. The use of other bronchiolitis treatments and the decision to hospitalize wer…