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Practice Rapid Recommendations

Corticosteroids for sore throat: a clinical practice guideline

BMJ 2017; 358 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.j4090 (Published 20 September 2017) Cite this as: BMJ 2017;358:j4090

Population

This recommendation applies to almost all patients with sore throat: People withsore throat Children and adults Emergency and primary care settings Patients with a viral or bacterial sore throat Severe and not severe sore throat Patients who receive immediate or deferred antibiotics However the recommendation is not applicable to patients with: Infectiousmononucleosis Immunocompromising conditions Sore throat following surgery or intubation

Choice of intervention

or Short course of steroids No steroids Standard clinical care, which typically includes analgesics, and may include antibiotics 1–2 doses of oral Dexamethasone(or equivalent dose of alternative corticosteroid) + standard care 10mg Adults: Children: Standard care Analgesics Antibiotics 0.6mg per kg + +/- + Standard care Analgesics Antibiotics + +/-

Recommendation

Favours steroids Favours no steroids

We suggest short course steroids. Discuss with patients in shared decision making. All Applies to Click for details Strong Benefits outweigh harms for almost everyone. All or nearly all informed patients would likely want this option. Weak Benefits outweigh harms for the majority, but not for everyone. The majority of patients would likely want this option. Weak Benefits outweigh harms for the majority, but not for everyone. The majority of patients would likely want this option. Strong Benefits outweigh harms for almost everyone. All or nearly all informed patients would likely want this option.

Comparison of benefits and harms

Favours Steroids Favours no steroids Evidence quality Events per 1000 people No important difference The panel found that these differences were not important for most patients, because the intervention effects were negligible and/or very imprecise (such as statistically not significant)

124 more Complete pain resolution (24 hrs) Moderate More 100 224

Risk of Bias No concerns Imprecision Serious Indirectness No concerns Inconsistency Due to imprecision Publication bias No concerns Corticosteroids probably increase the chance of complete resolution of pain at 24 hours

204 more More Complete pain resolution (48 hrs) High 629 425

Risk of Bias No concerns Imprecision No concerns Indirectness No concerns Inconsistency No concerns Publication bias No concerns Corticosteroids increase the chance of complete resolution of pain at 48 hours
Mean time to resolution (hours)

11.1 fewer More Complete pain resolution Low 33.0 44.0

Risk of Bias No concerns Imprecision Serious Indirectness No concerns Inconsistency Serious Publication bias No concerns Corticosteroids may shorten the duration of pain
Events per 1000 people

More Symptom recurrence or relapse Moderate 34 65 No important difference

Risk of Bias No concerns Imprecision Serious Indirectness No concerns Inconsistency No concerns Publication bias No concerns Corticosteroids probably have no important effect on the chance that symptoms recur

Antibiotics prescription Low 564 468 96 fewer More

Risk of Bias No concerns Imprecision Very serious Indirectness No concerns Inconsistency No concerns Publication bias No concerns Corticosteroids may decrease the chance of taking antibiotics in patients given a prescription with instructions to take the antibiotic if unimproved or worse.
See all outcomes
The panel believes that there is a great variability on how much reduction in pain severity or time to complete pain resolution each patient would consider important. Shared decision making may help establish what matters most to each patient. Preferences and values Serious adverse events Multiple doses One-dose administration of steroids is not likely to cause serious adverse events. Very low quality evidence exists for extremely rare but serious adverse effects following higher doses or longer courses of steroids (up to 30 days). Risks may outweigh benefits when cumulative doses of steroids are given for multiple episodes of sore throat. To mitigate this issue, clinicians could administer the medication in office if possible, or prescribing only one dose per visit. Key practical issues Steroids No steroids 1–2 doses, taken as pill(s) or intramuscular injection(s) No practical issues May cause transient sleep disturbance, and excitability Dexamethasone is generally avoided during pregnancy

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Rapid Response:

Re: Corticosteroids for sore throat: a clinical practice guideline

Dear Authors,

As an ENT trainee doctor, we often see patients with sore throats (tonsillitis, EBV or Quinsey). From experience and internal audits, the vast majority of presenting sore throat to the hospital setting is tonsillitis. It is common practice to treat these patients with corticosteroids, especially when not eating and drinking. From looking at the responses of the clinicians in the primary care setting, it may not be common practice to prescribe steroids for sore throats, as it is a self-limiting condition. I wonder if the use of steroids has more application in the secondary care setting, in terms of improving symptoms and subsequently reduced inpatient hospital stays.

Kind Regards

Competing interests: No competing interests

31 October 2017
Wei Jia
ENT
Northwick Park Hospital