[Neuroplegia in cranial and cranio-thoracic injuries]

During severe head injuries, the reaction to the cerebral lesion is intense and characterised by a disturbance which is automatic, vasomotor and endocrine. Associated with general ventilatory and nutritional resuscitation, neuroplegia occupies in this pathology, aplace of choice. Cranio-thoracic traumas raise more complex problems owing to different ventilatory requirements, depending on whether the lesion is of the brain or thorax. One must therefore, find a compromise between the depression which necessarily occurs during a too intense autonomic reaction, and the ventilatory requirements created by the thoracic injury. In all cases, the micro-circulatory improvement produced by neuroplegic drugs is probably favourable. The authors report their experience of eighty severe cranio-thoracic traumas, over a period of thirty months, submitted to treatment including neuroplegics.