A 17 year old boy, Curt Allen, Jr., was involved in a high speed car accident in 2004 where he was comatose at the scene and left with an acute traumatic brain injury (TBI). After being discharged from a brain injury rehabilitation center for making minimal progress, he was referred to a physician who had experience in administering Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). Curt was initially unresponsive, but after 90 HBOT sessions over the course of 13 months, he was talking, laughing and walking on his own.

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

HBOT is an FDA-approved medical procedure that places patients in a pressurized sealed chamber, which provides 100% oxygen therapy for a specific period of time depending on the condition. This is believed to improve oxygen supply to the brain, reduce swelling associated with low oxygen levels and lower the volume of the brain that will ultimately perish.

The treatment is currently used for people suffering from conditions such as:

• Carbon monoxide poisoning
• Thermal burns
• Crush injury
• Air embolism
• Diabetic wound ulcers
• Necrotizing gas gangrene
• Radiation necrosis
• Osteomyelitis
• Arterial insufficiency
• Severe anemia

For many years there have been anecdotal reports of HBOT improving outcomes following brain trauma. Over the past decade, a number of basic scientific studies have found HBOT benefits on brain recovery in rodents where brain cells’ mitochondrial recovery and decrease in apoptosis in hypoxic nerve cells led to improved cognitive recovery and a reduction in hippocampal neuronal cell loss. The proposed mechanisms of HBOT on brain injury include neural stem cell activation and growth, reduced hypoxic-induced myelin damage, elevated cellular ATP levels, and enhanced neuronal tolerance to hypoxia. These studies led to several clinical trials since 2010 focused on both safety and effectiveness of HBOT in treating patients with mild and severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

The Future of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Evidence-based medicine data suggests HBOT is a safe and effective treatment for severe head trauma to improve cerebral metabolism, intracranial pressures, mortality rates, and other clinical outcomes. Recent randomized clinical trials indicate acute or early HBOT administered within 24 hours post-injury can benefit injured workers with severe TBI by limiting and mitigating the extensive secondary brain injury phase from reduction of the brain’s blood flow from microvascular occlusions and hypoxia, brain edema or swelling, and neuro-inflammation. However, there is not sufficient evidence to support using HBOT in mild TBI and other conditions such as post-traumatic concussive syndromes at this time.

For more detailed information about HBOT and its effectiveness as a therapy for TBI cases, contact us to request Paradigm’s clinical white paper.