On Sunday 25 February 2001  6:22 pm, David Freels wrote:
> From:
> http://pediatrics.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2001/02/02.23/20010222clin007.h
>tml Children With Cerebral Palsy Do Not Benefit From Hyperbaric Oxygen
>
>
> WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Feb 22 - Children between the ages of 3 and
> 12 years with cerebral palsy related to perinatal hypoxia show no more
> benefit from the use of hyperbaric oxygen than they do with slightly
> pressurized room air, report Canadian researchers.
>
> Dr. Jean-Paul Collet, from SMBD Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, and
> associates report that treatment with hyperbaric oxygen, which might
> theoretically increase oxygenation of the cerebral ischemic penumbra, is
> often requested by families for their children with cerebral palsy.
>
> To investigate the scientific validity of this approach, the investigators
> studied children who had motor developmental age between 6 months and 4
> years, and who had a history of hypoxia in the perinatal period.
>
> As reported in the February 24th issue of The Lancet, 54 children were
> randomly assigned to hyperbaric air at 1.3 atmospheres absolute, the lowest
> pressure at which pressure can be felt, and 57 to hyperbaric 100% oxygen at
> 1.75 atmospheres absolute. The 60-minute sessions took place once a day, 5
> days per week, for 8 weeks.
>
> The investigators observed no significant differences between groups in
> global changes in the gross motor function measure or the pediatric
> evaluation of disability inventory, either at the end of the study or after
> 3 months of follow-up. However, subjects in the oxygen-treated group
> experienced significantly more ear problems than their cohorts.
>
> Dr. Collet and colleagues were struck by the finding that both groups
> showed improved functionality at the end of the study. They attribute this
> phenomenon to selection of very motivated parents and the increased
> positive communication of the subjects with other children and with their
> parents.
>
> Lancet 2001;357:582-586.
>
> ```````````````````````````````````````````````````````
> Three things jump out to me here. First the story here is that both the
> trial group and the control group benefitted--this hardly means that there
> is no benefit to High-Dosage Oxygen (HDO).

But what it does show is that HDO is unnecessary since the group who had 148
milliliters of oxygen in their blood improved to the same extent as the group
who received 1,230 milliliters of Oxygen.

What the report seems to draw from this fact is that whatever is causing the
improvement is probably not the level of oxygen nor the high pressure it is
administered at..

Our stoneage ancestors probably knew that chewing the bark of a willow helped
stop a headache, it took a chemist and research to extract the salic acid so
that we can just take a pill of aspirin. (Ooh that bark gets in your teeth!!).

I hope they continue the research to find what is benefitting us with the
procedure, and if it turns out to be a plastic tent with a battery fan for 30
minutes a day that costs $50 dollars, surely this is a good thing.

Cheers

Deri