Veterans Special Report

News & Research

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has been used for the better part of two centuries. Search our  arhives below for past HBOT news and research or scroll down for the latest.

The Latest HBOT News & Research

Clinical Trial – Occult Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Detection by Pulsated Carboxymetry in an Emergency Department

Feb 19, 2016 | , ,

In France, the carbon monoxide is one of the first causes of the accidental poisonings with
approximately 8000 cases a year, among which 500 deaths.

The severe forms are translated by neurological disorders even a coma or the death straight
away. The more insidious forms with a little carboxyhémoglobine level give rise to frustrate
clinical pictures, mimicking flu or intestinal syndromes. The syndrome post–intervallaire
corresponds to the appearance of remote neuropsychiatric disorders of the poisoning. Its
appearance and its gravity are not correlated in the gravity of the initial poisoning,
however the precocity of the treatment tends to decrease its frequency.

Carbon monoxide elimination is made under unchanged form in the expired air. In a spontaneous
way, the half-life in ambient air is of the order of 4 hours. In ventilation in isobaric pure
oxygen, the half-life is shortened at 80 minutes and in hyperbaric oxygen at 23 minutes.

This imposes a fast diagnosis for two reasons:

– For poisonings with low level, the more the investigators wait to measure the
carboxyhémoglobine (HBCO), the more they risk not to detect it.

– The oxygen therapy decreases the duration of the poisoning and thus the tissular
suffering.

Actually the risk is important to pass next to the diagnosis and to let leave a patient
without adapted care and without technical intervention to eliminate the source of the
poisoning.

Presently, to make the diagnosis, the investigators possess the analysis of the blood HbCO by
realization of gas of the venous blood, which are taken in emergencies, but very often a few
hours after the end of the exposure at the source of poisoning, what is translated by a
disappearance of the symptoms and an underestimate of the initial blood HbCO. Since 2005,
MASIMO laboratory commercialize a pulse carboxymètre, the RAD 57, which allows to estimate
the carboxyhémoglobinémie in a not invasive way.

Lot of studies showed the interest of its use in the early screening of carbon monoxide
poisonings, allowing a faster dosage of the blood HbCO, and thus an also faster adapted care.

Clinical Trial – Comparison of Two Regional Technics In Knee Artroplasty

Feb 19, 2016 | , ,

Purpose: This prospective, randomised, controlled, single-blind, multicentre study was
designed to investigate the effects of peripheral nerve block methods (applied using
unilateral spinal anaesthesia [USA] on elderly patients scheduled to undergo total knee
arthroplasty) on perioperative haemodynamic parameters and the postoperative analgesia
period.

Materials and Methods: Sixty patients in the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)
Physical Status II-III group were randomly divided into two groups. Spinal anaesthesia was
performed in the USA group, in the lateral position through the intervertebral space, with 2
ml of hyperbaric bupivacaine (L4-L5 or L3-L4); 0.5% bupivacaine hydrochloride and 2%
lidocaine were combined for the psoas compartment-sciatic (PCS) group, and the mixture was
used for psoas compartment block (PCB) and sciatic nerve block. The haemodynamic parameters
were recorded every 5 minutes until the end of the preoperative and perioperative operation
periods and postoperative first analgesic application time.