Methylprednisolone IV

My son just moved away from home to go to school and had a bad attack and went to a different hospital than usual. He has a note from his doctor on his usual treatment but they have him on a methylprednisolone IV and then oral prednisone for a week, plus he is still using his flovent 8 puffs per day. Isn’t this a bit of overkill. He usually responds quite quickly to his usual treatment of 5 days of prednisone and his flovent. I am just a bit concerned about the IV. He was released this morning but has to go back to Emergency this evening for another IV and then one tomorrow morning.

Thanks Stevie

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Well, it does sound like slight overkill. Certainly as far as IV hydrocortisone goes, the evidence suggests that it's no more effective for most people than oral pred, provided that you're not so unwell that you can't swallow it/absorb it. In a similar way, I would imagine that IV methylpred does not offer much advantage over oral pred. I guess they have their reasons, though, and a short course like that is very unlikely to actually do him any harm. Better overkill than underkill I guess.

Sorry to hear he's been ill again, I hope he feels better soon.

Em H