Conclusion
Corticosteroids may be an important part of the therapeutic armamentarium for children with parapneumonic effusion. Obviously, lots of questions have to be answered: what molecule (if any) should be used, what posology, when to initiate the treatment (in the early phase of the disease, or later?), what duration of treatment, what patients would benefit from this treatment? As a first step in addressing these questions, our data, despite their limitations, indicate that corticosteroids could be associated with a significant reduction in the use of surgical procedures and with a prompt clinical improvement. Corticosteroids could thus offer a non-invasive therapeutic alternative for children with parapneumonic effusions when antibiotics and pleural drainage are considered ineffective.