What Researchers Did
Researchers treated 28 patients with chronic refractory osteomyelitis, assigning 14 to adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen therapy and 14 to a control group after initial debridement, to evaluate its potential benefits.
What They Found
Among the 28 patients, hyperbaric oxygen therapy had no discernible effect on the length of hospitalization, the speed of wound repair, or the initial clinical outcome. Furthermore, there was no observed difference in the recurrence of infection between the 14 patients who received HBO and the control group.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
Canadian patients with chronic refractory osteomyelitis may not experience additional benefits from adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This suggests that current standard treatments without HBO might be equally effective for improving hospitalization, wound healing, and preventing infection recurrence.
Canadian Relevance
This study has no direct Canadian connection as it was conducted outside of Canada.
Study Limitations
A limitation of this study is its relatively small sample size of 28 patients, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.