The clinical application of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in spinal cord injury: a preliminary report.

While reports of the beneficial effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in experimental use appear in the literature, there have been no reports of clinical trials with hyperbaric oxygen therapy of acute spinal cord injury. A series of treatment protocols have thus been designed for treatment of acute spinal cord injury utilizing hyperbaric oxygen. The study has been in progress for the last two years and involved more than 50 patients; results from the therapy trial in 25 patients over the last 18 months will be presented in this preliminary report. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy was generally initiated approximately 7 1/2 hours following injury. Pretreatment and posttreatment motor scores were compared with those of patients given conventional therapy for acute spinal cord injury. Under these circumstances, patients receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy appeared to recover more quickly, although their final motor scores were about the same as those of patients receiving conventional therapy. Thus, alter the time course of recovery, perhaps without altering the final neurological outcome.