Understanding Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral Palsy can be any one of many diseases grouped together under one name. Usually you are born with it or it happens shortly after birth. Due to the many new medical advances, CP (Cerebral Palsy) is easier to spot than before. If you haven't shown signs of CP by kindergarten, you're not going to contract it later in life.

While different forms of the disease may have different symptoms, they do have some things in common:
problems with body movements (including the tongue, which makes speaking and swallowing difficult) and posture problems.

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Oxygen therapy is just as it sounds; giving the body lots of pure Oxygen to breathe. "Hyper" means more. In other words, stuffing more oxygen into the air. By raising the air pressure higher than normal, the patient can take in more oxygen at once. This extra oxygen in the body promotes the growth of stem cells, which can turn into virtually any type of cell your body needs.

How is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy done?

Doctors use a modern version of the iron lung that encompasses the whole body. Air pressure is slowly raised inside the compartment that may include only you or you and several neighbors. (It's a lot like taking off in an airplane or going deep sea diving in that the change in pressure can have unwanted side effects - see more below.) Once the target air pressure is reached, each occupant gets a clear vinyl hood to wear. This hood, or "plastic bubble," gives 100% oxygen to breathe. Because the air pressure is raised by as much as 3x, the lungs take in 3x as much air as usual. As the oxygen-rich blood circulates, it brings fresh oxygen to various organs, helping to speed the healing process. Sometimes it is referred to as "HOT."

What not to confuse Hyperbolic Oxygen Therapy With?

It should not be assumed that whenever you get oxygen that that process is equivalent to therapy. Oxygen is an endemic element in the atmosphere and a vital component of the ecology, not to mention that it is necessary if you don't want to suffocate. What makes this sort of therapy different isn't that it includes oxygen, or that it leads to hyperventilating. It's because there's a whole lot more of it.

Are the effects of HOT permanent?

Without follow-up care, the effects of HOT probably won't be permanent. But, coupled with intense physical therapy, the complications (or, for some, benefits) can be long lasting.

What are some of the major risks and complications of using HOT to treat cerebral palsy?

Possible complications include myopia and other vision problems resulting from the increased blood oxygen levels, middle and inner ear pain as well as ruptured eardrums and leaked inner ear fluid (due to the increased air pressure that HOT necessitates), barotrauma and pressurized damage to internal organs, and, finally, suffering from CNS (central nervous system) oxygen toxicity and seizures.

While some may feel that these risks are insignificant or rare, the severity of these potential complications of HOT are avoidable by pursuing alternate treatment methods for cerebral palsy. Some doctors fail to address the very real and significant risks of highly-pressurized treatment, and if you suspect your doctor has done so, regardless of your state of treatment, it's important to seek proper counsel.

Peter Wendt is a writer and researcher in Austin, Texas. His family history with HOT therapy has garnered him with a deep suspicion towards some cerebral palsy treatment. He recommends that readers who have suffered from wrongfully-prescribed hyperbaric oxygen treatment for cerebral palsy pursue medical malpractice information to obtain malpractice compensation.