Normally, oxygen is almost exclusively carried by red blood cells. During hyperbaric oxygen therapy, there is a substantial increase in the amount of oxygen carried in all body fluids, including plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph and intracellular fluids. This allows increased oxygen levels in areas of tissue damage or injury. Increasing oxygen levels promotes growth of blood vessels and increases the metabolic activity of previously marginally functioning cells, including brain neurons. Typically, treatments last one to two hours during which time patients relax, watch television, or sleep, while they are carefully monitored by highly trained technicians.
Most chambers are large enough to comfortably treat both an adult and a child.
The effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in children with cerebral palsy is likely a manifestation of enhanced function of previously damaged neurons. The concept of enhancing the function of these idling neurons has been extensively described in stroke patients as we have reported in previous issues of the Perlmutter Letter. Canadian researchers have been vigorously exploring the utility of HBO in cerebral palsy. Dr. Pierre Marois and his team of researchers from McGill University in Montreal have recently studied 25 children with cerebral palsy, aged 4 to 7 years, treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy on a daily basis for 20 days at McGill University. Another 15 children were treated twice a day for 10 days.