For the treatment of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), glucocorticoids and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) decrease hospital length of stay (LOS) when given early in hospitalization, a study shows. “The optimal dose and duration of treatment require further investigation, but this study supports early combination therapy with both IVIG and glucocorticoids for all children hospitalized with MIS-C,” the authors conclude.
The primary outcome for this multicenter retrospective cohort study was hospital LOS comparing patients who received glucocorticoids within 48 hours of arrival to the treating hospital to those who did not. “The final analysis included 131 subjects,” write the authors. “Subjects who received early glucocorticoids were more likely to receive early IVIG and to require ICU admission. Early glucocorticoid administration was associated with shorter ICU LOS (4 vs 9 days, P = .004) in the unadjusted analysis. In the adjusted analysis, early glucocorticoid administration and early IVIG administration were both independently associated with shorter hospital LOS (incidence rate ratio 0.75, P = .025; incidence rate ratio 0.56, P = .026, respectively).”