Its amazing to me — touted as a new breakthrough, we have used steroids in the treatment of ARDS for a long time (over 20 years). Those who I have treated have received this medication — this is clearly something most intensivists know.
The only interesting thing is that using decadron appears to be better than hyrodcortisone or solumedrol.
Seems like using that AND Albuterol would be perfect.................
I've read (and been told) that steroids aren't useful in cases of pneumonia, but I think that's because of their effect on the immune response. Seems to me if you're in exceedingly dire straits the first thing you need to do is get the inflammation down and worry about immune response later. A few years ago my wife had severe pneumonitis which responded very quickly to prednisone treatments. As an asthmatic, in the past I've been treated with both cortisone and prednisone for severe attacks of bronchitis. In every case my condition improved almost immediately.
Sometimes the medical people are too clever for their own (or rather your own) good.
I had severe lung congestion and shot of the hydrodcortisone—I believe it was—reduced the inflammation inside of 3 hours. Astounding.