Do IV Steroids Really Work?

navine: I think by the 72 hour mark you should really start thinking is my patient getting better or are they stagnating or are they getting worse. For those patients who are getting better then it's fairly straightforward from there to transition them to a p.o. steroid regimen and then oftentimes they can go home as an outpatient  and follow up with an IVD specialist. By day five of IV steroids has not made things better they typically are are trending towards the need of getting loaded with a biologic agent while in house so i'd say this generally happens by day five. If still no response those patients are essentially going to need to go to surgery with the colorect