A prospective, double-blind, randomized study of the effects of perioperative steroids on palatoplasty patients - PubMed (original) (raw)

Objective: To determine whether perioperative steroids affect the outcome of patients who undergo palatoplasty.

Design: A prospective, double-blind, randomized study.

Setting: A university medical center.

Patients: Twenty patients undergoing primary repair of a cleft palate.

Intervention: A prospective double-blind technique was used to randomly assign patients to receive a placebo or dexamethasone sodium phosphate perioperatively.

Main outcome measure: Patients were monitored for postoperative airway distress, fever, oral fluid intake, days of hospitalization, and wound healing.

Results: The use of perioperative steroids was associated with shorter hospitalizations. No adverse sequelae from the administration of steroids were identified.

Conclusions: In our current managed care environment, the use of perioperative steroids may play an important role in reducing health care costs.