University of Toledo Medical Center.
Washington University School of Medicine.
Undersea Hyperb Med. 2021 First Quarter;48(1):1-12. doi: 10.22462/01.03.2021.1.
The SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19) pandemic remains a major worldwide public health issue. Initially, improved supportive and anti-inflammatory intervention, often employing known drugs or technologies, provided measurable improvement in management. We have recently seen advances in specific therapeutic interventions and in vaccines. Nevertheless, it will be months before most of the world's population can be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. In the interim, hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2) treatment offers several potentially beneficial therapeutic effects. Three small published series, one with a propensity-score-matched control group, have demonstrated safety and initial efficacy. Additional anecdotal reports are consistent with these publications. HBO2 delivers oxygen in extreme conditions of hypoxemia and tissue hypoxia, even in the presence of lung pathology. It provides anti-inflammatory and anti-proinflammatory effects likely to ameliorate the overexuberant immune response common to COVID-19. Unlike steroids, it exerts these effects without immune suppression. One study suggests HBO2 may reduce the hypercoagulability seen in COVID patients. Also, hyperbaric oxygen offers a likely successful intervention to address the oxygen debt expected to arise from a prolonged period of hypoxemia and tissue hypoxia. To date, 11 studies designed to investigate the impact of HBO2 on patients infected with SARS-Cov-2 have been posted on clinicaltrials.gov. This paper describes the promising physiologic and biochemical effects of hyperbaric oxygen in COVID-19 and potentially in other disorders with similar pathologic mechanisms.
SARS-CoV-2（COVID-19）大流行仍然是全球主要的公共卫生问题。最初，通过改进支持性和抗炎干预措施，通常使用已知的药物或技术，在管理方面取得了可衡量的改善。我们最近在特定治疗干预措施和疫苗方面取得了进展。然而，在世界上大多数人能够接种疫苗以实现群体免疫之前，还需要几个月的时间。在此期间，高压氧（HBO2）治疗提供了几种潜在的有益治疗效果。三项已发表的小型系列研究，其中一项采用了倾向评分匹配对照组，证明了其安全性和初步疗效。其他一些传闻报告与这些出版物一致。HBO2 在缺氧和组织缺氧的极端条件下输送氧气，即使在存在肺部病理的情况下也是如此。它具有抗炎和抗炎症作用，可能改善 COVID-19 中常见的过度免疫反应。与类固醇不同，它在不抑制免疫的情况下发挥这些作用。一项研究表明，HBO2 可能会降低 COVID 患者的高凝状态。此外，高压氧为解决预期因长时间缺氧和组织缺氧而产生的氧债提供了一种可能成功的干预措施。迄今为止，已有 11 项旨在研究 HBO2 对感染 SARS-CoV-2 的患者影响的研究已在 clinicaltrials.gov 上公布。本文描述了高压氧在 COVID-19 中以及在具有类似病理机制的其他疾病中具有有前景的生理和生化作用。
