What Researchers Did
Researchers measured blood markers of oxidative stress in patients with a severe, fast-spreading infection before and after their first hyperbaric oxygen treatment.
What They Found
This observational study followed 80 patients with necrotizing soft-tissue infection and found that hyperbaric oxygen treatment was associated with a significant increase in two oxidative stress markers, myeloperoxidase (MPO) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), rising by a median of 3.4 ng/mL and 8.8 ng/mL. In the 39 patients who had septic shock, hyperbaric oxygen treatment was also associated with an increase in heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) by a median of 301.3 pg/mL. All four markers measured were significantly higher in patients with septic shock than in those without shock, and all correlated with disease severity. Patients with high baseline SOD levels had higher 90-day mortality.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This was an observational study without a comparison group of untreated patients, so the marker changes cannot be shown to be caused by hyperbaric oxygen treatment rather than by the infection or shock itself.