Which may be why FDA and Medicare approve of HBOT for certain conditions (gas poisoning, specific infections, “the bends”) but stress that it is not approved as a treatment for cerebral palsy, autism, multiple sclerosis, or heart attack. Preliminary human studies- almost invariably flawed-have also shown some promise. Scientists have raided pet stores to test HBOT in rabbits (the study demonstrated that HBOT is safe), cats (found that it repaired damaged brains), and dogs (suggested that it can increase survival rates). STEM CELL TREATMENT FOR NEAR DROWNING FULLFor oxygen-starved brains, full of idling and dead neurons surrounded by glial cells, it is believed that such high levels of oxygen can shock the brain cells back into action. Studies suggest hyperbaric conditions increase the oxygen delivered to a patient 2,000-fold. Henry’s Law states that the amount of gas that dissolves in a liquid is directly proportional to the partial pressure of that gas, and one outcome of that nifty rule is that higher pressure means more oxygen molecules make it into the plasma. Therapists then increase the atmospheric pressure inside the tube or hood until it’s roughly three times higher than normal air pressure, and administer oxygen under these high-pressure conditions for about two hours. Patients either lie down on a table that slides into a plastic tube or sit with their heads in a plastic hood, breathing oxygen through a mask. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves increasing the air pressure in the room while administering oxygen therapy. The news is good, but this may not be a mass-market miracle. “Such low-risk medical treatment may have a profound effect on recovery of function in similar patients who are neurologically devastated by drowning.”Ī tragedy was averted–reversed really–but a question lingers even as Carlson returns to her life: Does the case represent a massive breakthrough for HBOT treatments or was it a fluke? A single case study does not represent proof of concept for a treatment plan that remains unapproved and largely untested on human drowning victims. Paul Harch, director of hyperbaric medicine at Louisiana State University School of Medicine, in a statement. “The startling regrowth of tissue in this case occurred because we were able to intervene early in a growing child, before long-term tissue degeneration,” announced case study coauthor Dr. Merely five months after drowning, Carlson’s MRI revealed only mild, residual brain damage. After 39 HBOT sessions, she regained almost all of her speech, cognition, and movement. According to a new study describing the case-it worked. In a last-ditch attempt to save Carlson’s oxygen-starved mind, her family travelled to New Orleans for a controversial treatment known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy. MRI scans showed that the drowning had ravaged her developing brain’s grey and white matter. Her prognosis was not good when she was discharged from the hospital she was alive but immobile, unalert, and unable to communicate. Two months earlier she had hopped over a baby gate and fallen into the family swimming pool, where she remained underwater for 15 minutes before she was discovered and resuscitated. Two-year-old Eden Carlson remained unresponsive.
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