Conflict of Interests - none
PRODIGY recently (2007) update their asthma guideline. This includes a section on the management of acute asthma, which reports (in relation to corticosteroids): “Corticosteroids - Give orally, unless unable to swallow, in which case give intravenously. - Repeat dose or give intravenously if vomiting. - Aim to stop corticosteroids when they are no longer required. For adults, oral corticosteroids should be given for at least 5 days or until recovery. For children, up to 3 days is usually sufficient, but the length of course should be tailored to the number of days necessary to bring about recovery. - A short course (up to 3 weeks) of oral corticosteroids can be stopped without tapering the dose, unless the person is on maintenance oral corticosteroid treatment, when the dose may need to be tapered down more slowly according to the person's response. - Note: an option is to give the person a course of 'rescue' oral corticosteroids, to be used when the early symptoms of an acute exacerbation of asthma is felt. - Doses for oral prednisolone and intravenous hydrocortisone are given in Table 8.” See full guideline for further details (and table 8), URL below. Source: http://www.prodigy.nhs.uk/asthma/view_whole_guidance