Embargoed Until: Sept. 15, 1997
Temple University Hospital Contact:
Andrew Smith, (215) 707-8229 or [email protected]
Temple Study Finds No Significant Difference in Healing Time From Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
PHILADELPHIA -- Results from a Temple University Hospital study indicate that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy does not speed healing time for soft-tissue sports injuries. Although HBO therapy is becoming increasingly popular with professional sports teams, this study marks the first time it has been put to the scientific test. The study appears in the September 15 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine.
In HBO therapy, patients sit in a cockpit-like chamber that puts them under increased atmospheric pressure. While in the chamber, they breathe air saturated with a higher-than-average amount of oxygen. Because liquid absorbs a greater amount of gas in a high-pressure atmosphere, the chamber enables the blood's plasma to absorb more oxygen. The theory is that increased oxygen, which is essential to healing, will help speed recovery time.
"We conducted a double blind study of 32 patients with acute ankle sprains to compare treatment with hyperbaric oxygen against treatment without it," said Dr. Alfred Bove, one of the study's authors. "We found that there was no difference between the patients who received HBO and those who received åregular' air."
In 1993, a pro soccer team in Scotland used HBO to treat sports injuries. The team claimed that HBO therapy reduced recovery time for injured players by an average of 67 percent.
"But reduced compared to what?" points out Bove, noting that the reduction was based on estimates of the time it usually takes athletes to recover from certain types of injuries. "But without comparison with similar injuries treated conventionally," notes Bove, "you can't make scientific conclusions."
Unlike the soccer team study, Temple's research feat! ured a "control" -- a basis for comparison in fact. Temple methodically compared the healing time of athletes treated with HBO as opposed to those who weren't.
In Temple's study, the subjects were patients between the ages of 15 and 55 who came to Temple's Center for Sports Medicine in Marlton, NJ, for treatment of ankle sprains. In order to qualify, the injury must have been untreated and couldn't have been more than 72 hours old.
A variety of tests were then done to objectively classify each participant's ankle injury to determine precise starting points upon which to assess progress. All patients spent three, 90-minute treatment sessions in the chamber. Half were given HBO. The other half breathed "normal" air, although participants didn't know the difference. At regular intervals, tests confirmed the degree and speed of healing of each person's injury.
Ankle injuries were chosen as the subject of the study because they're common, disabling and germane to a wid! e variety of sports. They're also an ideal target for study, because they can be objectively graded in terms of severity through tests that determine strength, range of motion and degree of swelling.
"Subjects in this study represent the typical patients seen in a practice of sports medicine," says Dr. Paul Marchetto, an orthopedic surgeon and one of the study investigators. "Injured athletes are usually provided first aid treatment on the field, then referred to the sports medicine center for further evaluation and treatment."
Patients in Temple's study averaged 34 hours from the time of injury to their appearance in the sports medicine center. Bove says that it is unclear whether HBO therapy initiated within a few hours of injury would have resulted in a different outcome and such studies need to be done.
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