Inhaled Corticosteroids Are Associated with Pneumonia in COPD Patients

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) guidelines recommend adding inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) when patients continue to have exacerbations while taking long-acting bronchodilators. However, ICS use in COPD patients is associated with excess risk for pneumonia and, in some studies, patients who discontinue their ICS exhibit little or no deterioration. Researchers performed a case-control study using the Canadian national healthcare database to determine if withdrawal of ICS in COPD patients leads to a shorter time to first severe pneumonia (i.e., causing death or hospitalization).

More than 100,000 COPD patients who received ICS were followed for a mean 4.9 years; 14,000 severe pneumonia events occurred, and each case was matched on …