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Ed Yeates ReportingCan hyberbaric oxygen benefit people with brain injuries? Utah scientists are about to find out in the first scientific study to measure actual improvements, if they're really occurring.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at LDS hospital and some others involves administering 100 percent oxygen to a patient enclosed in a sealed chamber. Researchers already know that if you give a hundred percent concentration of oxygen two to three times greater than normal sea level pressure, patients in these chambers with carbon monoxide poisoning or chronic wounds will improve. But the evidence for what ails 31-year old Thomas Edward Dehann here is not so clear cut.
Ted has a brain injury from a near drowning accident on Utah Lake a little over a year ago. He's lost some memory and fine motor skills in one hand. LDS Hospital is enrolling him and others to see if hyperbaric oxygen therapy may prove beneficial.
Thomas Edward Dehaan, Near Drowning Patient: "I hope it gives me the ability to play the guitar again, for one thing, fine motor skills in my lift hand and short term memory."
Dr. Lindell Weaver says while there are many antidotal stories from patients who've had hyperbaric oxygen, no scientific evidence has yet been accumulated to back them up.
Lindell Weaver, M.D., Hyperbaric Medicine, LDS Hospital: "If it does, the ramifications are huge, I mean just enormous. So I think it's important to do what's right, which is to do a series of investigations to see if this works at all."
The patients volunteering for this study will enter the chambers once a day for sixty sessions over a three month period. If an injured brain responds like a chronic wound does, or if, as another theory suggests, neurons neutralized in an injury can be stimulated into action again, studies like this will document any changes.
If any positive evidence comes from this first phase experiment, Dr. Lindell Weaver says more concentrated, double blind studies will follow.
If you are interested in participating in this study, you can call LDS Hospital at 801-408-3623.
