Clinical Investigation On Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy In China

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is defined as a treatment in which a patient intermittently breathes 100% oxygen while the treatment chamber is pressurized to a pressure greater than sea level (1.0 atmosphere absolute ATA). Hyperbaric oxygen for the treatment of more than 100 years of history, in the development of Chinese also has more than 50 years. HBOT has been used as a primary or adjuvant therapy to treat a variety of diseases. It is widely used to treat neurologic, otolaryngology, stomatatology, dermatologic, and urologic disorders. This article mainly reviewed the indications and contraindications of HBOT, as well as the status of clinical and experimental HBOT research in China. There are 9 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the last ten years published internationally, we will summarize them and evaluate the quality score of them. The final conclusion is that the quality of Chinese clinical researches of HBOT is generally low. Research with a stricter design that includes, random trials, blind experimentation, multiple centers, and large samples are needed for further confirmation. Basic research is about the main mechanism of HBOT. Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning (HBO-PC) is a hot spot of current research in China, this paper will also introduce the current research situation of hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning.