Methods for preventing progressive tissue necrosis, reperfusion injury, bacterial translocation and adult respiratory distress syndrome

A method for preventing or reducing loss of tissue viability caused by adhesion of neutrophils to endothelial cells, which comprises administering to a patient having a tissue injury simultaneously with or within six hours following said tissue injury, a therapeutically effective amount of a compound of the formula ##STR2## wherein X is H or halogen;

• R.sup.1, R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are independently .dbd.O, --OH, --SH, H, halogen, pharmaceutically acceptable ester, pharmaceutically acceptable thioester, pharmaceutically acceptable ether, pharmaceutically acceptable thioether, pharmaceutically acceptable inorganic esters, pharmaceutically acceptable monosaccharide, disaccharide or oligosaccharide, spirooxirane, spirothirane, --OS O.sub.2 R.sup.5 or --OPOR.sup.5 R.sup.6 ;
• R.sup.5 and R.sup.6 are independently --OH, pharmaceutically acceptable esters or pharmaceutically acceptable ethers;
• and
• pharmaceutically acceptable salts,
• with the proviso that when (a) R.sup.3 is H or OH, R.sup.2 is .dbd.O or OH and X is H or (b) R.sup.3 is H or OH, R.sup.2 is .dbd.O and X is halogen, then R.sup.1 is not OR.sup.4, wherein R.sup.4 is H, fatty acid, C.sub.1-10 alkyl, C.sub.1-10 alkenyl, C.sub.1-10 acetylenic, (Y).sub.n -phenyl-C.sub.1-5 -alkyl, (Y).sub.n -phenyl-C.sub.1-5 -alkenyl or --CO--R.sup.7, R.sup.7 is H, fatty acid, C.sub.1-10 alkyl, C.sub.1-10 alkenyl, C.sub.1-10 acetylenic, (Y).sub.n -phenyl-C.sub.1-5 -alkyl, (Y).sub.n -phenyl-C.sub.1-5 -alkenyl, Y is the same or different and is halogen, C.sub.1-4 alkyl, C.sub.1-4 alkenyl, alkoxy, carboxy, nitro, sulfate, sulfonyl, C.sub.1-4 carboxylesters or C.sub.1-4 thioesters, and n is 0, 1, 2 or 3.