Supported by: -
Lisburn Partnership EU Programme for Peace & Reconciliation
What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
Hyperbaric oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a non invasive procedure which involves giving intermittent high doses of oxygen. in order to achieve levels of oxygen high enough to be rapidly effective, the oxygen must be administered in a chamber, at about twice the pressure which would normally be experienced at sea level.
how useful is Hyperbaric Oxygen in the treatment of sports injuries?
Supported by scientific evidence from a preliminary Investigative trial at Dundee United Football Club and a season long study conducted in Glasgow in cooperation with Celtic Football Club, it was demonstrated that injury periods were significantly reduced when hyperbaric oxygen was used as an adjunct to routine treatment and physiotherapy. Recovery times for a variety of injuries were reduced by an average of more than 55% in comparison to the recovery that would have been expected without HBOT. Excellent recovery rates have been documented in a diversity of professional sports such as rugby, football, golf and boxing.
With HBOT, it is possible to significantly reduce the time lost to injuries. This, in turn, will reduce the time required for rehabilitation after more serious injuries because the degree of both muscle atrophy and cardiovascular deconditioning are directly related to the delay in recovery from the initial trauma.
How does HBOT work?
Oxygen is critical in both wound
and fracture healing. With traumatic
injuries, however, tissue damage and swelling impair local blood flow. Hence
oxygen supply to the wounded area is restricted at a time when the body needs
it most to effect repair. In addition, inflammatory reactions at the site of
any injury introduce cells with high metabolic oxygen requirements. Thus, oxygen
demand in the injured tissue is at its highest when oxygen delivery is at its
lowest. Haemoglobin is limited in the
amount of oxygen it can carry and, in arterial blood, is essentially saturated
when breathing air at normal atmospheric pressure. The only effective way to significantly increase the oxygen
content of blood is to dissolve greater amounts in the plasma. To do this requires that the gas in the
lungs contain a much higher-than-normal partial pressure of oxygen. This can only be achieved by breathing pure
oxygen at an elevated ambient pressure (hyperbaric oxygen).
At twice normal atmospheric pressure the content of oxygen dissolved in the plasma is increased to 15 times its usual level and oxygen diffusion into injured tissues is greatly enhanced. This is true even in damaged circulatory beds through which red cells often cannot pass. This increased oxygen delivery provides the means for the natural repair processes of the body to function at a greatly accelerated rate.
What types of injury can be treated with HBO?
High dosage oxygen is an effective adjunct to the treatment of all types soft injury common in any contact sport. These include fractures; strains; sprains and tears of all types;- tendonitis; cuts and abrasions; bruises and haematomas; bursitis; back and neck injuries; muscle stiffness and soreness. In addition, the rigours of a long season eventually cause an accumulation of effects which prevent some players from. training between games or playing at less than full potential. This is because the recovery time between games is inadequate for the players bodies to fully recover from the stresses they are subjected to. Even without injury the effects of post exercise fatigue can have significant impact on performance levels. These effects can be favourably influenced by HBOT which can substantially improve the rate at which Lactate and Ammonia levels normalise. Using a hyperbaric oxygen chamber should enable acceleration of the recovery of such players to the point that they can play with greater effectiveness each week and, perhaps, by reversing the disabling spiral, even permit them to train with the rest of the team between games.
Are there any side-effects with HBOT?
As with many therapeutic agents, an excess
of oxygen is toxic. Its pharmacology
and safe limits are well established however, and the maximum dose commonly
used in physiotherapy applications (i.e., two atmospheres of oxygen for a
maximum of 60 minutes each session) is much less than that typically required
to produce detectable effects. Further,
until the effects of oxygen reach an extreme stage, they are totally reversible
and without lasting impact. Thus, the
hyperbaric oxygen exposures required to deal effectively with sports injuries
can be safely repeated several times in one day.