Weekly Web Roundup: 27 November 2010

We hope our readers in the United States are having a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday and that those elsewhere in the world are enjoying whatever non-stuffed-turkey-involved events are appropriate to their locale. The luxury of few days off has given us the opportunity to relight the boilers and get the weekly roundup moving again.

SCIENCE

Surgeons in the department of thoracic surgery, Ondokuz Mayis University Medical School, Samsun, Turkey, report in the December 2010 issue of The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon that a week of hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps healing of anastomosis surgery wounds after irradiation and resection of the trachea in an animal study.

Preliminary results from a 24-patient study in China suggest that hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be effective for improving recovery from erectile dysfunction after posterior urethral reconstruction.

Medscape Today provides a case report of a rare necrotizing infection involving an intraperitoneal rupture of an infected urachal cyst. Apparently, HBOT wasn't available in this case.

PRESS/BUSINESS

On December 10th, from noon to 1:00 pm, Dr Thomas Serena, medical director of the Snyder Institute for Vascular Health and Research, will discuss how the Snyder Institute is utilizing hyperbaric oxygen to prevent amputation in diabetics. His presentation is part of a free seminar at the Alle-Kiski Medical Center Hospital in Kittanning, Pennsylvania.

Check out this video tour of McMurdo General Hospital in Antarctica. Conducted by Major Greg Richert, flight surgeon, the tour includes the continent's hyperbaric chamber.

One of the miners who escaped from the Pike River mine in New Zealand after the initial explosion was treated with HBOT for carbon monoxide poisoning according to the New Zealand Herald.

Perry Baromedical has been selected to supply hyperbaric chambers to Restorix Health. Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, Restorix Health is a community-based center for advanced wound care affiliated with the Restorix Research Institute.

The story in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on carbon monoxide poisoning reports numerous incidents and insight from Dr. Kevin S. O'Toole, director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's hyperbaric medicine department.

PATIENT STORIES

From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press comes a wonderful success story. The combined efforts of The Hennepin County Medical Center, an Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society Accredited Facility, and the renowned Mayo Clinic saved a woman's foot and even seem to have eliminated her migraine headaches. She's published a book and is donating the proceeds to hyperbaric research. Osteomyelitis, or bone infection, is one of the FDA-cleared conditions for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Migraine and other conditions await more research.

Have news you'd like to share? E-Mail it to us at: press@hyperbariclink.com.

Off-Label HBOT: Migraine

Now here's an odd case where hyperbaric oxygen therapy appears highly promising but stubbornly impractical. There's little question HBOT may provide quick relief from severe headache pain, or even stop a migraine in its tracks. The problem is getting into a chamber fast enough to get ahead of the attack. Still, for patients who experience warning signs hours beforehand, hyperbaric oxygen might offer a reasonable and nonpharmaceutical alternative.

Jump to our new migraine page to learn more and to use our HyperbaricLink Evidence Index to guide your personal research.

Evidence: Living In A World Of Pain

A word of advice to the aspiring HBOT researcher: Don't swing for the left field bleachers when all the team needs is a solid base hit. Oh, and don't complain about the lack of reimbursement if you haven't published a tight little study in a nice little journal. Which leads us to today's musical question: Why are we finding all the most promising evidence on hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic pain coming out of a military training hospital in Istanbul? Don't answer. We'll take it. More here soon, and new HyperbaricLink condition pages, on chronic regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, myofacial syndrome, migraine, and cluster headache.