What Researchers Did
Researchers conducted a single-centre prospective pilot cohort study with 50 COVID-19 patients to evaluate hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) as an adjuvant treatment for reducing oxygen supplementation.
What They Found
Among 50 participants with a mean age of 53.64 years, 49 (98%) initially had a PaO2 ≤ 80 mmHg. After three hyperbaric oxygen therapy sittings, all 50 (100%) participants achieved a PaO2 of 90 mmHg, indicating improved oxygen saturation and reduced need for additional oxygen.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For Canadian patients with moderate to severe COVID-19-related ARDS, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could potentially serve as an adjuvant treatment to improve oxygen saturation. This might help reduce the reliance on traditional oxygen supplementation and support recovery from respiratory failure.
Canadian Relevance
This study has no direct Canadian connection as it was conducted in a tertiary care hospital outside of Canada.
Study Limitations
This was a preliminary, single-centre pilot study with a small sample size and lacked a control group, limiting the generalizability of its findings.