Effectiveness of Betamethasone in Management of Severe Infections

STEROIDS might be of benefit to the patient with a serious infection.1 In 1961 a Cooperative double-blind study of the effects of administering a dose of 300 mg of hydrocortisone to patients with severe bacterial infections, followed by decrements for another three days, did not indicate any noteworthy alteration in the mortality.2 More recently, experimental studies indicated that only pharmacologic doses of corticoids might be expected to be helpful in bacterial infections.3 Therefore, the following studies were undertaken to define further the place, if any, of large doses of corticoids as an adjunct to antibiotics in the therapy of severe . . .