Rotator cuff injures (of the shoulder) can be very difficult to treat and can cause significant limitations in the range of motion for the affected shoulder, particularly in the elderly that are at higher risk to this kind of injury.
For professional athletes, an injury like this can slow down their time to ‘return to play’ but more importantly can limit their performance and put them at a higher risk for re-tearing the same injured area (as the repair tissue is not as strong, or tensile, as the original tissue before).
Since hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has both been shown to both speed up and increase the strength (tensile) of the healing process for these kinds of injuries, researches in this study wanted to further explore (and document) these benefits, particularly in relation to the tendon-bone interface healing.
Even thought this study was performed on animals (Rabbit study), it was only a 5 day study at 2.0 ATA (120 minutes each session). “The results indicate that hyperbaric oxygen therapy significantly enhances vascularization at the interface between the shoulder cuff and tendon-bone, promotes collagen fiber regeneration in the tendon, improves the tensile strength of the tendon-bone complex, and does not have a significant effect on biomechanical stability.”
This study is consistent with all research studies showing “QUICKER and STRONGER” tissue repair from the simple addition of HBOT <view study>