Oxygen and multiple sclerosis.Evaluating a treatment for a disease that progresses at different speeds in different people can be extremely difficult, and such has been the case for hyperbaric oxygen hyperbaric oxygen n. Oxygen at a pressure that is above one atmosphere. Also called high-pressure oxygen. Hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (SN: 2/26/83, p. 142). In hyperbaric oxygen therapy Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A treatment in which the patient is placed in a chamber and breathes oxygen at higher-than-atmospheric pressure. This high-pressure oxygen stops bacteria from growing and, at high enough pressure, kills them. , patients sit in a decompression chamber decompression chamber n. A compartment in which atmospheric pressure can be gradually raised or lowered, used especially in readjusting divers or underwater workers to normal atmospheric pressure or in treating decompression sickness. and breathe high concentrations of oxygen at high pressure. The therapy (developed for treating "the bends") was initially proposed for multiple sclerosis because there is a growing belief that MS is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the nerve sheathes, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy is thought to suppress the immune system. However, at the American Academy of Neurology The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is a professional society for neurologists and neuroscientists. As a medical specialty society it was established in 1949 by A.B. Baker of the University of Minnesota to advance the art and science of neurology, and thereby promote the best meeting this month in Dallas, Gerald E. Slater and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota (body, education) University of Minnesota - The home of Gopher. http://umn.edu/. Address: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. in Minneapolis reported that hyperbaric oxygen therapy did no better than a placebo. Thirty-eight MS patients were given 100 percent oxygen at two atmospheres of pressure 20 times for an hour and a half at a time; 19 patients sat in the same chamber but received no therapy. The researchers found dramatic improvements in some patients, but when they broke the code and looked at who was receiving therapy, they found that just as many people in the placebo group as in the control group had improved. One possibility, Slater suggests, is that both groups had to make the effort to get to the hospital--they were all getting more exercise. The therapy also got poor marks several months ago from Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, city (1991 pop. 199,064) and metropolitan district, NE England, on the Tyne River. The city is an important shipping and trade center. The famous coal-shipping industry began in the 13th cent. neurologists. In the Feb. 9 LANCET, they reported that in a comparison of 60 patients receiving therapy to 57 in the placebo group, they were able to find improvement only in bowel and bladder function. But it's not the death knell for hyperbaric oxygen. Boguslav H. Fischer of New York University New York University, mainly in New York City; coeducational; chartered 1831, opened 1832 as the Univ. of the City of New York, renamed 1896. It comprises 13 schools and colleges, maintaining 4 main centers (including the Medical Center) in the city, as well as the , who is also evaluating the therapy, says he thinks it is valuable for early cases and acute flare-ups, which Slater and his colleagues were unable to evaluate because they did not have enough patients in this group. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion