Context: Acute asthma is a leading cause of emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations. Although standard therapy for acute asthma includes systemic corticosteroids (SCS), these drugs take many hours to have an effect. Recent studies demonstrate that inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) may improve patients' asthma severity more rapidly than SCS and may decrease hospitalizations. Only a few small studies have evaluated ICS added to standard therapy for acute asthma in children.