Executive Summary: Guidelines on Use of Corticosteroids in Critically Ill Patients With Sepsis, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, and Community-Acquired Pneumonia Focused Update 2024

Corticosteroids in Sepsis and Septic Shock

Recommendation.

1A) We suggest administering corticosteroids to adult patients with septic shock (conditional recommendation, low certainty).

1B) We recommend against administration of high dose/short duration corticosteroids (defined as > 400 mg/d of hydrocortisone equivalent for < 3 d) for adult patients with septic shock (strong recommendation, moderate certainty).

Corticosteroids in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Recommendations

2A) We “suggest” administering corticosteroids to adult critically ill patients with ARDS (conditional recommendation, moderate certainty).

Corticosteroids in Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Recommendations

3A) We “recommend” administering corticosteroids for adult patients hospitalized with severe bacterial community-acquired pneumonia (strong recommendation, moderate certainty).