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Evidence summaries

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Thermal Burns

The evidence is insufficient to support or refute the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the management of thermal burns. Level of evidence: "D"

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included two studies with a total of 141 subjects. The trials were of poor methodological quality and data were not pooled. One trial (n=125) reported no difference in length of stay, mortality, or number of surgeries between the control and HBO-treated groups once these variables were adjusted for the patient's condition. The second trial (n=16) reported mean healing times that were shorter in patients exposed to HBOT (mean: 19.7 days versus 43.8 days, p<0.001) and that fluid requirements were also smaller in the HBOT group (mean: 2.2 ml/kg versus 3.4 ml/kg, no statistical analysis).

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by limitations in study quality, by imprecise results (few patients and wide confidence intervals) and by inconsistency (variability in results across studies).

    References

    • Villanueva E, Bennett MH, Wasiak J, Lehm JP. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for thermal burns. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2004;(3):CD004727 [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords