Journal Club: Low-Dose Steroids for Management of Delayed Pericontusional Edema After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

This research has been published in the Surgical Neurology International published by Scientific Scholar.

This study was a retrospective, single-center, 4-year study. The study analyzed patients who had received systemic corticosteroids for pericontusional delayed edema after traumatic brain injury. The time interval to steroid prescription, drug dosage, time to symptomatic improvement, and complications were analyzed. There were 19 males and eight females. Mean age was 42.1 years. Except for one, all were mild TBI categories. All patients had brain contusions on computed tomography. Dexamethasone was used in tapering doses over 5–10 days, starting with 12 mg/day. The mean interval to steroid prescription after the trauma was 5.9 days, and the mean and median duration was 7 days. All, except one, had symptomatic improvement. The mean time to complete improvement in symptoms was 2.8 days. There were no complications pertinent to steroid usage in any of our cases.

Therefore, it was concluded that this is the third clinical study to document the efficacy of systemic corticosteroids for delayed cerebral edema after traumatic brain injury. As steroids are excellent drugs for vasogenic edema, the timing and dosage of steroids are two important factors that will determine their efficacy in traumatic brain injury. The authors strongly feel that there needs to be more robust clinical trials with good patient numbers to confirm these findings.

Ref: Prasad G L, Pai A, Swamy PT. Short course of low-dose steroids for management of delayed pericontusional edema after mild traumatic brain injury – A retrospective study. 24-Jan-2025;16:23.