[Indications for anti-inflammatory corticoids in anesthesia-resuscitiation].

The use of anti-inflammatory corticoids in anesthesia and resuscitation is a long-standing fact, but their indications, owing to the risks to which they expose certain patients and owing to the uncertitude concerning their mechanism of action, are still badly defined. If certain indications (attacks of asthma, laryngeal oedema, certain peri-lesional oedemas) are considered as being categorial, the usefulness of anti-inflammatory corticotherapy is being more and more and more debated in other pathological conditions : infectious or chemical pneumonias, drowning, shocked lung, post-traumatic neuro-surgical conditions, cirrhosis. Very useful in precise indications, anti-inflammatory corticoids should not be prescribed, particularly in fragile patients whom we well know in resuscitation, without having weighed up the advantages and disadvantages related to this remarkable therapeutic instrument.