The recent Quebec, Canada study on the
effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen as a treatment modality for
children with cerebral palsy, reported in the prestigious British
medical journal, The Lancet (2/24/01), has reaffirmed the positive
effects of hyperbaric therapy," concludes J. Michael Uszler, M.D.,
internationally recognized expert on functional brain imaging.
These findings are completely opposite to the official
interpretation given in the study, and widely reported in the press.
Dr. Pierre Marois of Quebec, one of the 15 physicians who
participated in the study, has publicly announced that "the
conclusions of the study were sabotaged and the way people are
interpreting the results is a fraud." Rather than producing a
"negative effect", as first reported, the study produced a positive
result.
The study, a randomized multi-center trial from Quebec conducted
under the auspicies of Jean-Paul Collet, Professor of Clinical
Research, compared two sets of children with cerebral palsy, 3-12
years of age. In the study, 111 children received 40 treatments over
a two month period. One half the children received pressurized
oxygen at 1.75 ATA. Treatments were conducted at several locations
using both monoplace and multiplace chambers.
The statistics of the study demonstrated that both groups of
children improved in all areas over the course of the study without
any significant difference between the two types of treatment, with
the exception that the group receiving the increased oxygen tension
improved more rapidly and to a higher degree in many of the
measurements. Furthermore, "all results, in both groups, were still
evident three months after the intervention, without regression,"
the Quebec study reported.
Dr. Richard Neubauer, Director and Founder of the Ocean Hyperbaric
Center in Florida, and an author and international lecturer on
hyperbaric oxygenation, is excited about the results of the study.
He believes it is an outstanding study and opens new doors to the
possibility that lower supplements of oxygen may be effective in
helping children with cerebral palsy. "If it can be scientifically
proven that lower levels of oxygen in compressed air will help
children with cerebral palsy almost as much as higher levels of
pressurized oxygen," said Dr. Neubauer, "it would mean that hundreds
of thousands of additional children could be treated each year . . .
the majority of the world's children with cerebral palsy will never
have access to hyperbaric conditions."
Although the study confirmed the oxygen therapy significantly helped
all of the children, the protocol of the study opened its findings
to debate.
Dr. Paul G. Harch, Clinical and Research Director, Louisiana State
University, School of Medicine, Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship, a
well respected physician in hyperbaric medicine, who agrees the
study was highly positive, questions whether 1.75 ATA may have been
too high a pressure for the children in the monoplace chamber group.
"It approaches the 2 atmosphere cutoff where improvement in chronic
brain injury is infrequently seen in hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Although Marois reports that many Canadian children with cerebral
palsy are frequently treated with 1.75 ATA, Harch states, "the use
of 1.75 ATA atmosphere of pure oxygen for 60 minutes for forty
treatments, is a protocol never before used in a clinical study of
the use of hyperbaric oxygen for cerebral palsy."
Dr. Philip James, Director of the Hyperbaric Trust in the UK, and
internationally known author and speaker, is concerned that the
control group received hyperbaric air at 1.3 ATA, originally
referred to as the "placebo" of the study. Despite the surprisingly
positive effects in the 1.3 ATA control group, James feels the 1.3
ATA oxygen caused at least a 25% rise in the rate of the children's
metabolism rate. "The findings would have more validity if the
control group had not been given any additional oxygen," said James.
The evidence of the Quebec study confirms hyperbaric therapy may be
an effective and safe way to improve the functioning abilities of
many children with cerebral palsy. To prove this fact without a
doubt, and to determine if lesser amounts of oxygen will help
children with cerebral palsy, however, will take further study under
more tightly controlled testing conditions.
There will be a major international conference in Boca Raton,
Florida, July 26th - 28th, 2001, to further substantiate the effects
of hyperbaric oxygenation in cerebral palsy and the brain injured
child. Speakers from all over the world, including China, Russia,
Cuba, South America, United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States,
will be presenting new information and techniques on this
non-invasive form of treatment. The goal is to glean the necessary
information to validate and substantiate hyperbaric treatment for
cerebral palsy children as a viable therapy to gain medical
acceptance and obtain insurance coverage.
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