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Evidence summaries

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury

Hyperbaric oxygen may reduce death rate after brain injury but does not seem to improve quality of life for survivors. Level of evidence: "C"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 7 studies on adjunctive hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for treating traumatic brain injury, with a total of 571 subjects. The results of two studies indicated use of HBOT results in a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of people with an unfavourable outcome one month after treatment using the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) (RR for unfavourable outcome with HBOT 0.74, 95% CI 0.61 to 0.88, P = 0.001). Pooled data from final follow-up showed a significant reduction in the risk of dying when HBOT was used (RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.54 to 0.88, P = 0.003, NNT 7, 95% CI 4 to 22). Two small trials reported a significant improvement in Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) for patients treated with HBOT (MD 2.68 points, 95% CI 1.84 to 3.52, P < 0.0001).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by imprecise results (limited study size for each comparison) and by limitations in study quality.

    References

    • Bennett MH, Trytko B, Jonker B. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the adjunctive treatment of traumatic brain injury. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2012;12():CD004609. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords