Recovery of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis after short term high dose corticosteroid treatment in neurosurgical practice.

The recovery of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis after high-dose short-term steroid treatment was investigated in 18 patients undergoing stereotactic thalamotomy during local anaesthesia, in whom perioperative betamethasone was given in a high dose for 4–5 days and withdrawn without tapering. There were no untoward clinical effects of the abrupt withdrawal of the steroid. Seven patients undergoing the same operation without steroid treatment served as controls.