Hyperbaric oxygen effects on sports injuries

Abstract: In the last decade, competitive sports have taken on a whole new meaning, whereintensity has increased together with the incidence of injuries to the athletes. Therefore, thereis a strong need to develop better and faster treatments that allow the injured athlete to returnto competition faster than with the normal course of rehabilitation, with a low risk of re-injury.Hyperbaric therapies are methods used to treat diseases or injuries using pressures higherthan local atmospheric pressure inside a hyperbaric chamber. Within hyperbaric therapies,hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) is the administration of pure oxygen (100%) at pressuresgreater than atmospheric pressure, i.e. more than 1 atmosphere absolute (ATA), fortherapeutic reasons. The application of HBO for the treatment of sports injuries has recently been suggested in the scientific literature as a modality of therapy either as a primary or anadjunct treatment. Although results have proven to be promising in terms of using HBO as a treatment modality in sports-related injuries, these studies have been limited due to thesmall sample size, lack of blinding and randomization problems. HBO seems to be promising in the recovery of injuries for high-performance athletes; however, there is a need for largersamples, randomized, controlled, double-blinded clinical trials combined with studies using animal models so that its effects and mechanisms can be identified to confirm that it is a safeand effective therapy for the treatment of sports injuries