Episode 11: Do steroids decrease mortality in severe community acquired pneumonia

Here is a controversial paper with mortality findings very different to what has been published before. The Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Evaluation of Corticosteroids (CAPE COD) Trial, was a double-blind, randomised, controlled, superiority trial, conducted in 31 French ICUs. Intravenous hydrocortisone, 200mg, was given within 24 hours of onset of severity criteria (median time < 15 hours). The results were very different to the previous study conducted in 42 ICU centres.