HBOT for Treatment of Long COVID (aka Post COVID) Conditions
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Recent studies reveal that 30% to 50% of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus will develop symptoms of Long COVID, as measured at 4 months post infection. The symptoms are varied but usually include extreme fatigue, post-exertional malaise, shortness of breath, chest pain, rapid heart rate, headache, brain fog, memory loss, depression and anxiety to name a few. The medical field is early in its investigation of the causes but they are likely multifactorial. Possibilities include chronic inflammation from retained viral particles or immune dysregulation, or microvascular injury which affects various end organs including the heart, lungs and brain. Until now few, if any, studies have been published with clear treatments for Long COVID. However, this July 2022, Zilberman-Itskovich et al., from Shai Efrati’s group, have published a randomized, controlled trial which showed improvements in neurocognitive function with HBO. Similar in construct to Dr. Efrati’s work in stoke and TBI, they randomized 73 patients to receive 40 daily sessions of HBO vs. a sham treatment. In the HBO group, significant improvements were seen in sleep, psychiatric symptoms, pain, attention and executive function and global cognitive function, and those improvements correlated to increased cerebral blood flow in specific brain regions. Overall, we are early in the investigation of causes and treatments of Long COVID, but it appears hyperbaric oxygen therapy certainly may play a role.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/long-term-effects/index.html
https://jmedicalcasereports.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13256-022-03287-w
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8806311/
https://ilpqc.org/ILPQC%202020+/COVID19/groff_2021_oi_210832_1633112280.05388.pdf
