Clinical Double-Blind-Study on the Effects of Dexamethasone on Severe Closed Head Injuries

Although the efficacy of dexamethasone upon brain edema in brain tumors and abscesses is well established, the question is still open, whether a similar favourable effect is exerted in severe head injury. Controlled and statistically significant results were not available in the literature when this study was planned. Experimental studies, however, with cold injury as a model of brain lesion showed a favourable influence of steroids on brain edema, if very early and high dose administration was used (2, 3, 4, 6). Therefore, a double-blind study was performed comparing placebo with low and high dose of dexamethasone.