Head injury drug may reduce survival rates, says study

A MAJOR research trial has discovered that a widely-used head injury treatment does not improve survival rates and could do more harm than good.

The study, part of which took place in Ireland, discovered that 21% of people who were given corticosteroids died within two weeks compared with 18% of those on a placebo treatment.

Corticosteroids are used on patients as an anti-inflammatory treatment to reduce death and disability by preventing the potentially lethal brain swelling that occurs after head injury. Co-ordinator of the Irish part of the study, Dr Patrick Plunkett of St James’s Hospital said: “Head injury kills and maims many people in our society.

“Finding the actual effect of a specific treatment is critical to our efforts to improve the outcome for these patients and for their families.”

Corticosteroids have been widely used around the world for more than 30 years but doctors say past studies on the treatment were too small-scale to provide definitive evidence of benefit.

Every year millions of people worldwide are treated for head injury.

One in five die and a substantial proportion are permanently disabled.

Up to 10,000 people from up to 50 countries took part in the trial which is reportedly the world’s biggest-ever head injury trial.

The international Medical Council Research (MCR) trial was published in medical journal, The Lancet.

The impact of corticosteroids on disability among head injury patients is still being investigated by the trial team. Results from the six-month patient follow-up will be published later.