Efficacy of Adjuvant Short Term Oral Steroid Therapy for Acute Pharyngitis

Ahn, Joong Ho; Woo, Won Keun; Kim, Young Sik; Song, Yong Jin; Jeon, Il Kwon; Jung, Jung Rae; Cho, Jae Hyun

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Sore throat due to acute pharyngitis is one of the most common ailments and complaints for hospital visits. This report aims to study the effects of oral steroids on pain relief, duration of illness, to get bacterial culture result and its relation to therapeutic effect. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Data was collected from 109 patients who have been clinically diagnosed with acute pharyngitis from March 2002 to August 2002. The 109 patients were arbitrarily divided into 3 groups and each group was prescribed different combinations of oral steroid and NSAIDS. All groups were commonly prescribed with antibiotics and analgesics after having performed a pharyngeal culture. Follow up was performed via telephone survey 24 and 48 hours after the clinical visit to measure subjective complaints of pain. The degree of pain was measured by the VAS (visual analogue system). RESULTS: The 3 groups scored an average of 3.23, 4.14 and 5.90, respectively, on the VAS scale after 24 hours of visit. After 48 hours the 3 groups scored 2.00, 1.65 and 3.03, respectively. From these results, VAS score was significantly lower in the group of oral steroid prescription, regardless of NSAIDS use, and this pattern increased in cases where bacterial cultures showed positive. However, there were no significant differences in the duration of illness, oral intake and limitation of activity among the 3 groups. CONCLUSION: The use of short term oral steroids for the treatment of acute pharyngitis can help to decrease the intensity and duration of pain, and this tendency seems to increase in cases where bacterial cultures show positive results.