Hyperbaric Oxygenation (HBO) Clinical Trials: A Review

Hyperbaric oxygenation HBO has been used as a medical intervention for the treatment or prophylaxis of numerous conditions in humans. There is an accumulation of pre-clinical and clinical data supporting its use in humans. It has been asserted that the clinical data are largely derived from anecdotal, uncontrolled observations. The call for reliable data from good clinical trials has sounded forth both from within and from outside the HBO community. A logical question is What clinical trials have actually been done to assess the efficacy of HBO, how good were they, and what did they find This thesis will present a review of HBO clinical trials which will help answer the above question. The review will identify HBO clinical trials in the general medical literature, assess their methodologic content, and list the reported efficacy of HBO in the various trials. Lastly, the review will briefly discuss its findings as they relate to future clinical research involving the use of HBO. js