What Researchers Did
Portuguese neurosurgeons reviewed outcomes for seven patients with treatment-resistant infections of the brain or spine, including post-surgical bacterial infections and spontaneous fungal infections (mucormycosis), who received HBOT after an average of four prior operations and five months of antibiotics had failed.
What They Found
Six of seven patients achieved infection resolution after completing HBOT. The one patient who stopped after 3 sessions due to intolerance did not resolve. Three patients discontinued antimicrobials entirely; four continued on preventive doses. Median follow-up was 20 months.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For Canadian patients with post-neurosurgical infections or aggressive fungal brain infections that have resisted multiple antibiotic or antifungal courses, HBOT offers a non-surgical path to resolution by increasing oxygen in infected tissue and enhancing immune response.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
Seven patients in a retrospective case series is too small to draw firm conclusions, and the absence of a control group makes it impossible to know how many patients might have resolved without HBOT.