What Researchers Did
Researchers compared recovery in patients with hypoxic ischemic brain injury who received hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to those who did not.
What They Found
This non-randomized case-control observational study of 25 patients with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy found significantly better coma recovery scale scores in the HBOT group compared to controls at 1-3 months and 4-8 months after injury. Of the patients who received HBOT, 20 had 20 sessions at 2 ATA and two had 60 sessions at 2 ATA, given across three different treatment intervals after injury. More patients in the HBOT group showed improvement in their disorder of consciousness than those in the control group. The study's conclusion states that HBOT given in the first nine months after hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy can result in better recovery and functional outcome.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This was a small, non-randomized, unblinded observational study with only 22 HBOT recipients unevenly split across three time-interval groups, so the results could be influenced by other differences between the cases and controls rather than HBOT alone.