What Researchers Did
Researchers looked at a large international registry of patients treated with hyperbaric oxygen to find new, emerging uses of the treatment beyond its established indications.
What They Found
This descriptive registry cohort study of 9726 patient entries found that 378 patients (3.89%) were treated for 45 emerging indications, with post-COVID-19 condition, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn disease together accounting for 62.4% (236 patients) of these cases. Post-COVID-19 condition was the largest group at 39.4% (149 patients), followed by ulcerative colitis at 12.4% (47 patients) and Crohn disease at 10.6% (40 patients); calciphylaxis (5.3%), frostbite (4.8%), and peripheral vascular disease-related wounds (3.2%) made up a further 13.2% (50 patients). Patients with post-COVID-19 condition showed significant improvement on a symptom scale, with scores dropping from 30.6 before treatment to 14.4 after (p less than .001). Patients with Crohn disease reported improved quality-of-life scores (53.8 before treatment versus 68.8 after), and 5 patients (13%) reported that a fistula had closed.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This is a descriptive, non-randomized registry study with no control group, so improvements cannot be confidently attributed to hyperbaric oxygen alone, and outcome data for some emerging indications, including ulcerative colitis, were incomplete or not fully reported.