Hyperbaric Oxygen as Medical Gas: New Online Journal

We are excited to see Medical Gas Research, a new online journal focused on neurobiology and neurological diseases, join PLoS ONE and other open-access journals designed to ensure fast publication times without sacrificing rigorous peer review. The journal will cover

anesthesiology, hyperbaric oxygen medicine, diving medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, surgery, and many basic sciences disciplines such as physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, microbiology and neurosciences.

Already a search for "hyperbaric" yields 6 articles on stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neurologic issues. Here's looking forward to more evidence and accelerated hyperbaric medical research in this fascinating and important field.

O2.0 is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

HBOT For Autism: Junk Science?

Yesterday "hyperbaric oxygen chambers to cure autism" made the Junk Science Week shortlist in a major Canadian newspaper. National Post financial columnist Terance Corcoran, darting about from fear to hype to hope, fails to build much of a case for such harsh judgment. And his entire tirade stems from a pretty finely balanced television story on CBC's The National.

We're on record, in this blog and on the HyperbaricLink autism page, in favor of more well-designed clinical investigations to build on last year's interesting work by Rossignol, et al, using mild HBOT. The UHMS December 2009 position statement on "The Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy" concurs:

... there is a strong case for further trials to be done in this area. Any future trials would need to be well planned, appropriately powered and include several relevant treatment arms.... These clinical efforts should be combined with efforts to elucidate the basic mechanisms by which mild hyperbaric therapy might exert a therapeutic effect.

Now does that sound like Junk Science to you? Let's be ever mindful of the canyon that lies between "unstudied" and "disproven" medical claims, especially when seeking effective treatments for such a poorly misunderstood condition as autism.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: A Public Health Crisis

We bring you yet more deadly stats for the cold and "flue" season. Carbon monoxide poisoning accounts for some 50,000 emergency room visits annually in the US. Every year about 450 Americans die from accidental exposure alone. Death rates peak in December and January. Almost all survivors experience serious immediate and lasting neuropsychological effects.

Off-Label HBOT: Multiple Sclerosis

Millions of multiple sclerosis patients have been treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Many have benefited, we don't doubt. But here's a prime example of doctors and patients acting more on hope than on evidence.

The medical literature on HBOT for MS does not impress. Plenty of fine studies altogether have shown rarely significant and never sustainable health improvements. Nor can we find any reasonable hypothesis why HBOT should work. Still, in their Cochrane Review meta-analysis, Bennett and Heard call for larger randomized, multicenter trials. So do we. For the time being, though, our check lands firmly in "scant."

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

UHMS Las Vegas: Lively Session On "Off-Label" Indications

HyperbaricLink.com and O2.0 congratulate the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society for holding its first plenary session dedicated to "Off-Label" Indications for HBO2 Treatment. The Society has shaped clinical practice and financial reimbursement for HBOT by keeping an iron grip on its 13 "approved" indications, adding just one to the list since 1976.

We were especially taken with Dr Dan Rossignol's autism presentation. Esteemed steward of the HBOT evidence Dr Michael Bennett agreed Rossignol's study was "terribly exciting and important" but needed replication. Bennett's quick take on other neurologic indications for HBOT ranged from "disproven" for multiple sclerosis to "unlikely" for cerebral palsy.

Proper blinding of hyperbaric clinical trials, as explained by Dick Clarke, proved a more difficult and subtle issue than we could have imagined. But it was Dr Jayesh Shah's provocative consideration of off-label ethics that really stirred things up and kept the Q&A going through lunchtime.

Perhaps minds are opening and times are changing. The UHMS moderator caught the true spirit of the session when he said, "If we don't provide leadership, who will?"