Pharmaceuticals
No Steroids for Tramatic Brain Injury
Last Updated:
People suffering from traumatic brain injuries shouldn’t receive steroids to reduce inflammation, report investigators who reviewed previous studies comparing death rates among patients who received the drugs to those who received a placebo. Some of the results showed a 15-percent higher death rate among the individuals treated with steroids.
Researchers explain doctors have long believed steroids could help people with traumatic brain injury because these injuries cause the brain to swell. Since steroids reduce swelling and inflammation, conventional wisdom suggested they would lead to a faster and better recovery.
In the largest of the 17 studies analyzed, involving about 10,000 patients, researchers found 21 percent of those treated with the drugs died compared to 18 percent of those who were not treated.
“The significant increase in death with steroids found in this trial suggests that steroids should no longer be routinely used in people with traumatic head injury,” says lead study author Dr. Phil Alderson, who published his findings along with colleagues in the January issue of The Cochrane Library.
According to a survey conducted in 2000, about one-third of all trauma centers in the United States routinely use steroids to treat traumatic brain injury cases. Traumatic brain injury affects about 1.4 million Americans every year and causes 50,000 deaths.
SOURCE: The Cochrane Library, Jan. 23, 2005.