This POEM in AFP Journal in 2016 Feb 1;93(3):227 shows that steroids are beneficial in patients with CAP. “Benefits include reduced hospital length of stay, decreased time to clinical stability, and lower rates of mechanical ventilation and acute respiratory distress syndrome. Steroids may also play a role in preventing deaths, especially in patients with severe CAP; however, the certainty of this evidence is not as clear.
Steroids Beneficial As Adjunctive Treatment for Community-Acquired Pneumonia
2017 Cochrane Review showed same benefits.
Their key results section says: “Corticosteroids reduced deaths in adults with severe CAP, but not in people with non-severe CAP. Eighteen adults with severe CAP need to be treated with corticosteroids to prevent one death.
People with CAP treated with corticosteroids had lower clinical failure rates (death, worsening of imaging studies, or no clinical improvement), shorter time to cure, a shorter hospital stay, and fewer complications. We found good-quality evidence that corticosteroids reduced clinical failure rates in children with pneumonia, but the data were based on a small number of children with different types of pneumonia.
People treated with corticosteroids had higher blood glucose levels (hyperglycaemia) than those not treated with corticosteroids. Corticosteroid treatment was not associated with increased rates of other serious adverse events.
Corticosteroids were beneficial for adults with severe CAP. People with non-severe CAP may also benefit from corticosteroid therapy, but with no survival advantage.” Cochrane review
Reference / Further Reading
Am Fam Physician. 2016 Feb 1;93(3):227. Steroids Beneficial As Adjunctive Treatment for Community-Acquired Pneumonia
http://www.cochrane.org/CD007720/ARI_treatment-corticosteroids-beneficial-and-safe-people-pneumonia