THURSDAY, May 26, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- Corticosteroids shouldn't be used to treat people with head injuries, according to the final results of a British study published online Thursday in the journal The Lancet.
Last year, the CRASH (corticosteroid randomization after significant head injury) trial of 10,000 adult head injury patients found that treatment with corticosteroids increased risk of death at two weeks compared to treatment with a placebo.
The newly released final results found that, six months after treatment, the death rate among patients treated with corticosteroids was 25.7 percent, compared with 22.3 percent among patients who received the placebo. The risk of death or severe disability in the corticosteroid group was 38.1 percent compared with 36.3 percent in the placebo group.
"Our results show that corticosteroids, which have been used to treat head injuries for decades, may be harmful," Dr. Phil Edwards, CRASH trials Coordinating Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
"Corticosteroids are also used to treat spinal cord injury, and given the CRASH trial results this practice should be urgently re-evaluated. Other widely used treatments for head injuries should also be properly evaluated in large-scale trials. The longstanding neglect of trauma care research is a scandal and patients are dying needlessly as a result of it," Edwards said.
Corticosteroids have been used to treat head injuries for more than 30 years, the researchers said.
The British study confirms research published earlier this year that found that routine use of anti-inflammatory corticosteroids to treat traumatic head injuries, such as those suffered in traffic crashes, may actually increase patients' risk of death. That study appeared in the January issue of the journal Cochrane Library.
More information
The American Academy of Neurology Foundation has more about brain injury.
