Treatment with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can lead to
significant neurologic improvements for stroke patients, show study
results.
The researchers found that HBOT produced noticeable improvements
even as long as 3 years after the initial stroke event.
Based on the theory that increasing a person's level of dissolved
oxygen using HBOT could activate neuroplasticity and improve
stroke-induced neurologic deficiencies, Shai Efrati (Tel-Aviv
University, Israel) and colleagues assessed the efficacy of 2 months
of HBOT for 74 patients who had suffered an ischemic or hemorrhagic
stroke 6-36 months previously.
Following exclusion of 12 patients, for example because they had
pulmonary conditions incompatible with HBOT, inner ear disease, or
claustrophobia, 30 patients received 40 sessions (five per week) of
HBOT over 2 months, while 32 patients in the control group had no
therapy during the same period. Each treatment session lasted for 90
minutes and used 100% oxygen at 2 ATA.
After the 2-month neurologic evaluation, involving 29 patients from
the control group and 30 of those receiving HBOT, patients in the
control group went on to receive 2 months of HBOT.
All the patients receiving initial HBOT sustained significant
neurologic improvements and had a better quality of life following
treatment compared with at baseline, while no improvements were seen
in the control group during the control period.
Neurologic function, as measured by mean scores (both HBOT groups
combined) on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and
activities of daily living questionnaire, improved significantly
from baseline after HBOT, decreasing from 8.62 to 5.69 and from
16.74 to 13.30, respectively.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on Brain Injury & Stroke
Significant improvements in quality of life, measured using the
Evaluation of Quality of life (EQ)-5D descriptive system and the EQ
visual analogue scale, were also observed from an overall mean (both
HBOT groups combined) of 9.04 to 7.62 and from 5.04 to 8.62,
respectively.
Single photon emission computed tomography scanning also showed
noticeable changes following HBOT that correlated with the observed
clinical improvements.
"We provide, for the first time, convincing results demonstrating
that HBOT can induce significant neurological improvement in post
stroke patients," write the authors in PLoS ONE.
"The neurological improvements in a chronic late stage demonstrate
that neuroplasticity can be operative and activated by HBOT even
long after acute brain insult," they add.
Although this study focused on stroke patients, the team believes
that this type of treatment may be applicable to other conditions
such as dementia.
"It is now understood that many brain disorders are related to
inefficient energy supply to the brain," commented Efrati in a press
statement.
"HBOT treatment could right such metabolic abnormalities before the
onset of full dementia, where there is still potential for
recovery."
Source