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 – Sequential Intrathecal Injection of Fentanyl and Hyperbaric Bupivacaine

Dec 24, 2017 | , ,

56 Parturients, aged 18-40 year, undergoing elective CS were randomly assigned to receive
sequential intrathecal injection of fentanyl and hyperbaric bupivacaine at the same rate
(normal sequential) NS or a rapid intrathecal injection of fentanyl followed by slow
injection of hyperbaric bupivacaine (rapid sequential) RS. Time of first rescue analgesia,
Dose of rescue analgesics, degree of postoperative pain, incidence of hypotension,
hypotension duration, ephedrine dose, spinal anaesthesia related complications and failed
block were recorded.

Clinical Trial – Prilocaine or Bupivacaine for Spinal Anesthesiain Pregnant

Dec 21, 2017 | , ,

The planned cesarean section is an intervention with a standard operating time of less than
40 minutes in trained teams. Hyperbaric Bupivacaine is the local anesthetic (LA) reference
for these operations. But the duration of its motor block is generally greater than 3 hours.
The purpose of this study is to show a reduction in motor block time with hyperbaric
Prilocaine by at least 30 minutes, which would allow mothers and their children to return to
the maternity ward earlier and thus improve the circulation of patients within the
maternity’s PACU.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for spinal cord ischaemia after complex aortic repair – a retrospective review.

Dec 15, 2017 | ,

Complex aortic repair (CAR) carries high rates of debilitating postoperative complications, including spinal cord injury. The rate of spinal cord deficits post-CAR is approximately 10%, with permanent paraplegia in 2.9% and paraparesis in 2.4% of patients. Treatment options are limited. Rescue therapies include optimization of spinal cord perfusion and oxygen delivery by mean arterial pressure augmentation (> 90 mm Hg), cerebrospinal fluid drainage, and preservation of adequate haemoglobin concentration (> 100 g L?). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been described in several case reports as part of the multimodal treatment for spinal cord ischemia. HBOT has been used in our centre as adjunct rescue treatment for patients with spinal cord injury post-CAR that were refractory to traditional medical management, and we aimed to retrospectively review these cases. After Research Ethics Board approval, we performed a retrospective review of all post-CAR patients who developed spinal cord injury with severe motor deficit and were treated with HBOT at our institution since 2013. Seven patients with spinal cord injury after CAR were treated with HBOT in addition to traditional rescue therapies. Five patients showed varying degrees of recovery, with two displaying full recovery. One developed oxygen-induced seizure, medically treated. No other HBOT-related complications were noted. Our retrospective study shows a potential benefit of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on neurological outcome in patients who developed spinal cord injury after CAR.

Perfluorocarbon in Delayed Recompression with a Mixed Gender Swine Model of Decompression Sickness.

Dec 14, 2017 |

Perfluorocarbons (PFC) are fluorinated hydrocarbons that dissolve gases to a much greater degree than plasma and hold promise in treating decompression sickness (DCS). The efficacy of PFC in a mixed gender model of DCS and safety in recompression therapy has not been previously explored. Swine (25 kg; N = 104; 51 male and 53 female) were randomized into normal saline solution (NSS) or PFC emulsion treatment groups and subjected to compression on air in a hyperbaric chamber at 200 fsw for 31 min. Then the animals were decompressed and observed for signs of DCS. Afterwards, they were treated with oxygen and either PFC (4 cc · kg-1) or NSS (4 cc · kg-1). Surviving animals were observed for 4 h, at which time they underwent recompression therapy using a standard Navy Treatment Table 6. After 24 h the animals were assessed and then euthanized. Survival rates were not significantly different between NSS (74.04%) and PFC (66.67%) treatment groups.

Cerebral arterial gas embolism from attempted mechanical thrombectomy: recovery following hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Dec 9, 2017 |

Cerebral arterial gas embolism is a recognised complication of endovascular intervention with an estimated incidence of 0.08%. Its diagnosis is predominantly clinical, supported by neuroimaging. The treatment relies on alleviating mechanical obstruction and reversing the proinflammatory processes that contribute to tissue ischaemia. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an effective treatment and has multiple mechanisms to reverse the pathological processes involved in cerebral arterial gas embolism. Symptomatic cerebral arterial gas embolism is a rare complication of endovascular intervention for acute ischaemic stroke.