“The patient underwent single photon emission computed tomography brain blood flow imaging before and after a block of thirty-nine 1.5 atmospheres absolute hyperbaric oxygen treatments. The patient experienced a permanent marked improvement in his post-concussive symptoms, physical exam findings, and brain blood flow. In addition, he experienced a complete resolution of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. After treatment he became and has remained employed for eight consecutive months. This case suggests a novel treatment for the combined diagnoses of blast-induced post-concussion syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

“Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in the US. Approximately 70-90% of the TBI cases are classified as mild, and up to 25% of them will not recover and suffer chronic neurocognitive impairments. The main pathology in these cases involves diffuse brain injuries, which are hard to detect by anatomical imaging yet noticeable in metabolic imaging. The current study tested the effectiveness of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) in improving brain function and quality of life in mTBI patients suffering chronic neurocognitive impairments and concluded that HBOT can induce neuroplasticity leading to repair of chronically impaired brain functions and improved quality of life in mTBI patients with prolonged PCS at late chronic stage.”

“Despite adequate evidence, including randomized controlled trials; hyperbaric oxygen is not yet recognized as efficacious for treating various forms of brain injury, specifically traumatic brain injury. Two football players with TBI/CTE are shown to benefit from being treated with hyperbaric oxygen as documented by neurocognitive examinations and functional brain imaging, in one case treatment commenced decades after the brain injury.”

“Convincing evidence that HBOT can revitalize chronically impaired brain functions and significantly improve the quality of life of mild TBI (mTBI) patients with prolonged post concussion syndrome at late chronic stage, even years after injury, are presented in a new randomized prospective trial published this year. The participants, who had suffered mTBI 1–5 years prior to the trial, were randomly divided into two groups: trial and control. The trial group patients received 2 months of HBOT, while the control group went without treatment in those 2 months. The treatment consisted of 40 daily sessions lasting 1 h at pressure of 1.5ATA and breathing 100% oxygen. The patients’ cognitive functions and quality of life were assessed by detailed computerized evaluations and compared, for all patients, with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans. HBOT sessions led to similar significant improvements in tests of cognitive function and quality of life.”

“After the cross to HBOT, there was comparable significant cognitive improvement as in the treated group. The cognitive functions improvements included memory, executive functions, information processing speed and attention. In addition to the objective change in
brain perfusion/metabolism, HBOT induced significant improvement in quality of life and cognitive functions. The significant improvement in brain metabolism, noticeable in brain SPECT after HBOT, correlated with the improvement in the cognitive functions.”

“The overall metrics demonstrates significant improvement in the patients’ overall brain health that occurred while PEMF therapy was being administered. The scores paralleled other outcome measures that were obtained in the study that also demonstrated improvement in CNS function. Additionally, patients reported qualitative improvements in brain health and cognitive function over the course of the study.”