Dexamethasone has been recommended as adjunctive therapy in children with bacterial meningitis, because the drug significantly reduces inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS). Clinical and laboratory abnormalities resolve more quickly and long-term neurologic sequelae are reduced in infants and children who receive dexamethasone, compared with children who receive placebo. Adverse effects of dexamethasone in children with bacterial meningitis have been limited mainly to gastrointestinal bleeding.
Injections of dexamethasone give maximum plasma concentrations of dexamethasone at 1 hour. The biological half-life of dexamethasone is about 190 minutes.