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What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
What it is?
Does hyperbaric oxygen have a cancer-causing or -promoting
effect? A review of the pertinent literature.
Source
Hyperbaric
oxygen therapy (HBOT) is the use of high pressure oxygen as a
drug to treat basic pathophysiologic processes and their
diseases (4).
HBOT has acute
and chronic drug effects (5).
Acutely, HBOT
has been proven to be the most powerful inhibitor of reperfusion
injury (6,7,8,9), which is the injury that
occurs to tissue deprived of blood supply when blood flow is
resumed. This is thought to be one of the primary mechanisms of
hyperbaric oxygen therapy effects in acute global ischemia,
anoxia, and coma (4).
Chronically,
HBOT acts as a signal inducer of DNA to effect trophic (growth)
tissue changes (10,11,12,13,14,15). Among
the demonstrated effects in chronic wounding is the development
of new blood vessels (16), however; in the
brain preliminary animal evidence seems to suggest more of an
adaptive effect on metabolism and blood flow
(17). For discussion of
this, see Chapter 18 of the K.K. Jain textbook. Please note
errata in Chapter 18: In each case study HBOT was delivered at a
maximum frequency of twice/day, not the four times/day
erroneously mentioned.
Drs. Harch,
Neubauer, and Van Meter are authors of three chapters in the
K.K. Jain Textbook of Hyperbaric Medicine (4).
None of them receive royalties from the sales of the book. This
textbook is one of the most comprehensive and authoritative
textbooks on HBOT, especially neurological applications, and
contains over 1700 references.
4. Harch PG
and Neubauer RA. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in global cerebral
ischemia/anoxia and coma, Chapter 18. Textbook of Hyperbaric
Medicine, 3rd Edition. Editor: K.K. Jain. Hogrefe and Huber
Publishers, Seattle, 1999.
5. Hyperbaric
Oxygen Therapy: 1999 Committee Report. Editor, N.B. Hampson.
Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Kensington, MD.
6. Zamboni WA,
et al. Morphological analysis of the microcirculation during
reperfusion of ischemic skeletal muscle and the effect of
hyperbaric oxygen. Plast Reconstr Surg 1993;91:1110-1123.
7. Thom SR.
Functional inhibition of leukocyte B2 integrins by hyperbaric
oxygen in carbon monoxide-mediated brain injury in rats. Toxicol
Appl Pharmacol 1993;123:248-256.
8. Mink RB,
Dutka AJ. Hyperbaric oxygen after global cerebral ischemia in
rabbits reduces brain vascular permeability and blood flow.
December, 1995. Stroke;26(12):2307-2312.
9. Yamada T,
et al. The protective effect of hyperbaric oxygenation on the
small intestine in ischemia-reperfusion injury. Journal of Ped
Surg, June, 1995;30(6):786-90.
10. Siddiqui
A, et al. Ischemic tissue oxygen capacitance after hyperbaric
oxygen therapy: a new physiologic concept. Plast Reconstr Surg,
1995;99:148-155.
11. Wu L,
Mustoe TA. Effect of ischemia on growth factor enhancement of
incisional wound healing. Surgery, 1995;117:570.
12. Buras JA,
et al. Hyperbaric oxygen downregulates ICAM-1 expression induced
by hypoxia and hypoglycemia: the role of NOS. Am J Physiol Cell
Physiol. 2000;278:292-302.
13. Zhao LL,
et al. Effect of hyperbaric oxygen and growth factors on rabbit
ear ischemic ulcers. Arch Surg, 1994;129:1043.
14. Reenstra
WR, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen increases human dermal fibroblast
proliferation, growth factor receptor number and in vitro wound
closure. Undersea & Hyperb Med, 1998a;25:53.
15. Reenstra
WR, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen increases human dermal fibroblast
expression of EGF-receptors (EGFR). Undersea & Hyperb Med,
1998b;25:54.
16. Marx RE,
et al. Relationship of oxygen dose to angiogenesis induction in
irradiated tissue. Am J Surg, 1990;160:519-524.
17. Harch PG,
et al. Low pressure hyperbaric oxygen therapy induces
cerebrovascular changes and improves complex learning/memory in
a rat open head bonk chronic brain contusion model. Undersea and
Hyperbaric Med, 1996;23(Suppl):48. |
