Researchers reviewed 26 adults who received hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for persistent cognitive problems from traumatic brain injuries sustained in childhood. Each person completed at least 40 sessions of 90 minutes breathing 100% oxygen at increased pressure. After treatment, participants showed significant and large improvements in global cognition, memory, executive function, attention, and processing speed, while motor skills did not improve. Benefits were seen regardless of how long ago the injury occurred (on average ~24 years) or the original injury severity, and people with mild childhood TBIs improved similarly to those with more severe injuries. Although promising, the study was retrospective, small, and lacked a control group, so the results suggest HBOT may help long-term cognitive recovery after pediatric TBI but require confirmation in larger, controlled trials <view study> Read Less

Traumatic facial paralysis can be difficult to treat in children. In this case report, a 2 year old girl was hit in the head by a car and suffered right peripheral facial paralysis 12 h after the injury. She was was successfully treated with an 8 week course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy combined with electroacupuncture <view study> Read Less

Most people who have had a significant brain injury will require extensive rehabilitation. They may need to relearn basic skills, such as walking or talking. The goal is to improve their abilities to perform daily activities. In this case study, a 26-year-old male, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) from a motor vehicle accident. He was discharged after 8 months and left with significant speech, ambulation, spasticity, and cognitive issues as well as the onset of post-traumatic epilepsy. The family decided to undergo hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and the combination of Neurofeedback (NFB) with HBOT "improved plasticity and functionality in the areas of injury and the correlated symptoms including short-term memory, personality, language, and executive function, as well as significantly reducing the incidence of seizures". These results suggest that HBOT combined with NFB may be a viable option in treating severe brain injuries and should be investigated <view study> Read Less

Twenty firefighters with mTBI and mild emotional distress were treated with HBO at a relatively low pressure of 1.3 atmospheres absolute for 45 min a day for 20 consecutive day. The goal of the study was to evaluate the subsequent changes in the regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) of the limbic system in these firefighters. The results showed an increase in rCBF in the hippocampal and parahippocampal regions of the brain. This may explain the recent evidence that suggests the ability for HBOT to help neural activities in the human brain and subsequently improve symptoms of psychiatric disorders <view study> Read Less

The benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for dramatic brain injury (TBI) has been confirmed by many studies. Now the question is “what is the best dose (ie, pressure protocol) to achieve the optimal benefits. As new research becomes available, it appears that the lower the pressure, the stronger the benefits. This study confirms the recent data, by showing that 1.6 ATA hyperbaric intervention was superior to 2.2ATA for neurological impairment and the restoration of symptoms following TBI. Researchers in this study suggested that “for the first time that 1.6 ATA HBO has an important protective role in inhibiting both the cytotoxic and the pro-inflammatory actions of histones in the early stage of secondary brain injury”. <view study> Read Less