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Hyperbaric Oxygen for Traumatic Brain Injuries
Reported May 21, 2008
NEW ORLEANS, La. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Five million people in the
United States have traumatic brain injuries -- injuries that are likely to
have a significant impact on their quality of life and their future. There
is no cure, but LSU researchers have found a treatment that could make a
real difference. In fact, it's the same therapy used to treat people with
diving injuries.
August 2005, Brigadier General Patt Maney was driving through Afghanistan
when a roadside bomb exploded right in front of him.
"Everything went bright red, then black and I had a sensation of flying up
into the air," General Maney told Ivanhoe.
He survived, but his brain suffered a traumatic injury.
"I was having trouble articulating, finding words and articulating thoughts
and symptoms even," General Maney said. "I knew I couldn't do things that
used to be simple."
When no standard treatment could help, he agreed to try an experimental
option -- hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Patients breathe pressurized pure
oxygen in a sealed chamber. After 80 treatments over four months he saw a
dramatic improvement.
"It has improved my cognition, my word finding, my balance," General Maney
said. "I had tremendous balance problems, I'd just fall over."
Paul Harch, M.D., a clinical assistant professor at Louisiana State
University School of Medicine in New Orleans, La., has studied the effects
of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on more than 500 patients -- even those with
neurological conditions like Parkinson's. Over time, Dr. Harch says high
doses of oxygen stimulate the brain to repair itself.
"And what we see is a general improvement in the majority of those
functions, a return to pre-injury status. It turns their lives around," Dr.
Harch told Ivanhoe.
Today, General Maney is retired, working as a judge in Florida, grateful for
a life a bomb almost took away. He says he hopes hyperbaric oxygen therapy
can be used to treat some of the nearly 400,000 soldiers coming back from
Iraq and Afghanistan with brain injuries. Because the procedure is still
considered experimental, the $200 cost per treatment is not typically
covered by insurance.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Leslie Capo
lcapo@lsuhsc.edu
(504) 568-5806
http://www.harchhyperbarics.com
http://www.hbot.com |
