Corticosteroids in primary tuberculosis with bronchial obstruction.

Could CT scan avoid unnecessary flexible bronchoscopy in children with active pulmonary tuberculosis? A retrospective study

“…In the 1960s, Nemir et al 24 and Gerbeaux et al 25 claimed that steroids were beneficial for the resolution of lesions, but did not provide data on long-term sequelae. In a more recent study performed on 29 patients with extrinsic bronchial compression of more than 50%, a significant difference was observed in the improvement of a bronchoscopic score when patients were treated with steroids 26. Others agree on the significance of rapid anti-tuberculosis treatment rather than steroid therapy to prevent bronchial complications 27 28.…”

Endobronchial tuberculosis—a review

“…Corticosteroids may be useful in the earlier stages of EBTB when hypersensitivity is the predominant mechanism but in later stages they have less likely to be helpful rather may cause detrimental effects. Corticosteroids have shown improvement in clinical outcomes when used in children (13,37). The beneficial role in children might be contributed by anti-inflammatory response thereby preventing bronchial compression resulting from erosion of lymph nodes into bronchial lumen however this has not been shown to prevent bronchostenosis in adults (25,38).…”

Tracheobronchial tuberculosis

“… Corticosteroids: corticosteroids have been used in children (33) and adults (3) (3). Restoring the airway patency and relieving the symptom is the key to the treatment in fibrotic stage.…”