[Severe head-injury of the child. Medical treatment (author's transl)].

The child with a severe head injury requires a three component's treatment: against cerebral edema, against restlessness and vegetative trouble, against shock in case of scalp-hemorrage or attendant traumatism. As there is no agreement neither about the treatment of cerebral edema nor that of sedative treatment, we continue to use systematically artificial ventilation, sometimes corticoids, rarely mannitol. Decerebration is treated by a lytic coktail enclosing always diazepam and in case of failure, sodium gamma-hydroxybutyrate.