Head injury treatment revelation
Routinely treating head injury patients with corticosteroids to reduce inflammation and brain swelling may actually do more harm than good. Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Universities of Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Oxford found that 21 per cent of patients with serious head injuries who were given corticosteroids died within two weeks compared with 18 per cent treated with placebo. Because more than a million people worldwide die from head injury each year and a similar number are left severely disabled, the team is now investigating the effect of corticosteroids on disability six months after head injury.
The Lancet 2005; 365: 1957-1959