Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy in the Treatment of Cerebral Palsy: A Review and Comparison to Currently Accepted Therapies

ABSTRACTHyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) has shown promise inclinical trials and is sought by many parents of children withcerebral palsy (CP). There is unusual resistance to expanding theindications for this modality, which is the only treatment available forcertain conditions, such as decompression sickness and airembolism, and which is effective in a number of others related towound healing. A recent study that showed notable improvementsin children with CP treated with slightly pressurized air, as well asthose treated with a standard protocol for HBOT, is invoked to denyeffectiveness of HBOT. Political and economic considerations,rather than purely scientific ones, play an important role in thiscontroversy. Further systematic research is needed, but in themeantime children should not be denied access to HBOT