side effects of Prednison

Question

When a child does not have a 100 % confirmed diagnosis of aspergillosis, how long is it necessary to take the Prednison?
I am afraid of side effects.

Answer

Hello, the Prednison medication is a corticosteroid substance. Long-term dosages of Prednison in children may have some side effects (growth retardation, corticoid-invoked diabetes – so-called steroid diabetes – osteoporosis, or thinning of the bones, and cataracts.
In the short term, corticoids (including Prednison) are prescribed as an anti-inflammatory medication for serious cases where the inflammation cannot otherwise be influenced. In the long term, Prednison is only recommended for patients who have cystic fibrosis complicated by a specific form of lung disease caused by Aspergillus (allergic bronchiopulmonary aspergillosis, or ABPA), which have certain symptoms and also certain diagnostic criteria.
You have not stated the symptoms that your child has, but corticoids should be administered for as short a period as possible; at the same time it should be long enough so that the clinical condition improves (decreased cough intensity and amount of sputum produced, decline in wheezing, improved physical ability, improved lung function, improved X-ray findings, decline in eosinophile leukocytes in blood samples, decline in overall IgE and specific antibodies against Aspergillus). Higher doses of corticoids are frequently given at the start of treatment, and are gradually decreased to zero or a small maintenance dose, which some patients are given permanently.
Best regards, Vera Vavrova a Jitka Brazova

15.02.2008