What can steroids do for persons with brain injuries?

The French have conducted some studies related to pneumonia and steroids. According to the results of their researches, those who experience brain injuries can avoid complications linked with pneumonia, if they are treated with the steroid hydrocortisone. These recent researches have displayed several positive effects of steroids for medical needs.
Pneumonia that is caused by traumatic brain injury is a dangerous illness. Unfortunately, it occurs frequently. The Journal of the American Medical Association has noticed that the percentage of pneumonia that occurs due to traumas is 40-60 %. It is more spread among persons that have experienced brain injuries.
Early post-traumatic pneumonia requires serious medical care and hospitalization. The risk of death is increased. Of course, prevention of this condition is clinical and economic problem.
Dr. Antoine Roquilly of the University of Nantes in France has confirmed that experimental and clinical data have manifested that usage of corticosteroids may decrease the occurrence as well as severity of pneumonia.
A research connected with this problem was conducted 3 years from 2006 to 2009. 150 persons that experienced different types of serious brain injuries were treated with the corticosteroid hydrocortisone. Other individuals with this condition were treated only with sugar pills. More than half of persons that were cured with sugar pills began to experience pneumonia over the month. As for those who were cured with the steroid hydrocortisone, the results were better. Less than 36 % of them got pneumonia during the same period of time. So, they didn’t need to be ventilated mechanically. Furthermore, they prevented respiratory problems that troubled the patients that were given sugar pills.
Dr. Lisandro Irizarry of the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City has stated that the research is interesting but it requires further researches in order to be claimed a part of standardized treatment.
 In fact, any individual that has experienced a brain injury can confront the problem, when he/she doesn’t have capacity to engage in normal oral hygiene and routine expectorating of mucus. It can result in great amounts of bacteria. It increases the risk connected with pneumonia. So, when a body experiences such stress, as a trauma, certain hormones, including hydrocortisone, must assist in healing. But this process can be suppressed by trauma. That’s why such patient needs an external supplement of steroids for a short period of time to enhance healing responses of the body.
However these studies have proven usefulness of the steroid hydrocortisone for patients with brain injuries, some more studies have to be conducted. It shows that steroids have capacity to save lives of people in some situations.