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HyperMED Protocols are unique - we provide Hyperbaric Oxygenation combined with Lokomat (Gait Training) and other supportive modalities including Median Nerve Stimulation, Whole Body Vibration, immune stimulating supplements etc - please review the following attachments.
Neuroprotective Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment in Traumatic Brain Injury of Rat. Wang G, Jiang Z. Institute of Nautical Medicine, Department of Neuropharmacology, Department of Neuropharmacology, Institute of Nautical Medicine, Nantong University, 19 Qixiu Road, Chongchuan District, Nantong, Jiangsu 226001, China, Nantong, China, 226001, 86-513-85051799, 86-513-85051796; wgh@ntu.edu.cn. J Neurotrauma. 2010 Jun 23. [Epub ahead of print] Abstract: This study was designed to evaluate the potential benefits of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) in the treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The right cerebral cortex of rats was injured by the impact of a 20 g object dropped from a standard predetermined height. Rats received HBO treatment at 3 ATA for 60 min after TBI. Neurological behavior score, brain water content, morphological changes in the hippocampus, and cell apoptosis in brain tissue surrounding the primary injury were examined to reflect the brain damage severity. Three and six hours after TBI, HBO-treated rats displayed a significant reduction of brain damage. However, 12 h after TBI, the efficacy of HBO treatment was considerably attenuated. Furthermore, 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after TBI, the HBO treatment did not show notable effects. In contrast, multiple HBO treatments (3 or 5 times totally), even started from 48 h after TBI, remarkably reduced the neurology deficit score and the loss of neuronal number in the hippocampus. Although multiple treatments started from 48 h significantly improved the neurological behaviors and reduced the brain injury, the overall benefic effects were substantially weaker than the ones observed after single treatment from 6 h. These results suggest that: 1) HBO treatment could alleviate brain damage after TBI. 2) Single treatment of HBO has a time limitation of 12 h post-TBI. 3) Multiple HBO treatments have the possibility to extend the post-TBI delivery time-window. Therefore, our results clearly suggest the validity of HBO therapy for the treatment of TBI.
Please take the time to watch the following National Geographic Documentary on Professor Ed Cooper pioneering work on Median Nerve Stimulation . The key message by Prof Cooper is the fact that 'awakening is the result of accurate repetition many thousands of times that tells the brain and spinal cord – wake-up, wake-up, wake- up, wake-up, wake-up ….’ Median Nerve Stimulation (MNS) is an integral part of the HyperMED Protocol - application is recommend for all patients with neurologic disorders. The Brain Injured patient have vast regions of the brain that remain in a low metabolic state resulting in 'learned non-use'. MNS provides a cost effective yet simple home application that enables patients to continue the benefits of HyperMED saturation and training. Equally Spinal Cord patients, victims of neurologic trauma and elderly patients suffering dementia related illness can also benefit from Median Nerve Stimulation. Science supports the fact that many disabled patients have intact but non-responding dormant neural pathways. These dormant pathways need to 'wake-up!'
"Our data suggests that wheelchair restriction definitely impairs functional recovery in rats, and logically it would seem to apply also to humans," says David Magnuson of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, University of Louisville; National Neurotrauma Society Symposium in Orlando, Florida 2008. 'Learned non-use' is a major contributor to progressive acquired disability. Median Nerve Stimulation can assist to 'keep the therapeutic window open - (alive)'. Mal Hooper_HyperMED
In this section we will see how Hyperbaric Medicine is being used increasingly to assist patients with disabilities resulting from closed head injury and other related disabilities.
“There is no need of apology for tackling only a symptom rather than an etiology; the misery of these patients cannot wait” – Landau. This section attempts to tackle a range of conditions that seldom receive attention and commitment other than ‘labeling’ the patient and recommending a supportive group program attempting to assist the sufferer with techniques of self awareness and how to ‘live and cope with disability’. Our objective is to shed some light on the subject of Closed Head Brain Involvement, and add a degree of inspired outcome for those suffering head and related neurological disability. We are not offering a ‘cure’, but rather a sound medical approach to improving the neurovascular structure directly affecting brain metabolism and function.
The importance of Oxygen to the Brain Of all the chemical elements, oxygen is the most vital to the human body. We would survive for only minutes without oxygen. Oxygen is a life giving, life-sustaining element which creates approximately 90% of the body’s energy. Nearly all of the body’s activities, from brain function to the process of elimination, are regulated by oxygen. The ability to think, feel and act is derived from the energy supplied by oxygen. This Oxygen energy cycle has become critically important today, more than at any time in human history, because of the sudden unnatural decrease in atmospheric oxygen. It is estimated that the air breathed by our distant ancestors contained approximately 50% oxygen. Reports suggest that in excess of two hundred years ago, the air was composed of 35% oxygen and 1% carbon dioxide. Oxygen levels measured by Swiss scientists during 1946 were reported to be 22%. Most recent report measurements have fallen to 19% with more than 25% carbon dioxide. In major industrial cities, records have indicated oxygen levels to be considerably lower, so it is understandable that respiratory and asthma related illnesses have been on the increase over the past decade. Oxidation is the term used to describe the complex process of combining oxygen with various elements in the body to reduce or ‘burn’ them for various purposes. Oxidation is the essential factor in healthy metabolic function, better circulation, assimilation, digestion and elimination. The oxidation process is responsible for purifying the blood, keeping it free from toxic cellular waste accumulation. Adequate oxygen levels allow the body to recuperate during sleep, strengthening the immune system. Oxygen calms and renews the nervous system. A lack of this vital ingredient leads to a multitude of biochemical reactions becoming dysfunctional. Closed Head Injury covers an ever widening range of direct trauma and indirect neurodegenerative disorders. Conditions range from acute brain trauma due to impact and related injuries to complex motor neuron disorders. Conditions that have been previously thought to be beyond hope are now achieving clinical improvement through the application of Hyperbaric Medicine.
Mechanism of Closed Head injury Since hypoxia (reduced oxygen) and ischemia (reduced blood flow) are involved in the pathophysiology of many disorders of the nervous system, Hyperbaric Oxygenation has an important role in their management. To understand the role of HBOT in neurological disorders, a basic knowledge of cerebral (brain) metabolism, blood flow and neurophysiology is essential. Cerebral hypoxia is defined as oxygen deprivation to the brain and its structures. Oxygen is vital and oxygen deficiency, regardless of the cause, starts a vicious cycle of destructive pathological changes in the brain tissue. This cycle, unless interrupted, continues with disabling consequences.
Cerebral edema is a frequent finding in many disorders of the CNS (Central Nervous System including brain and spinal cord structures). Cerebral edema can be directly influenced by numerous factors including heart related conditions and obstructive circulatory conditions including thrombosis and atherosclerosis. Other conditions to influence cerebral edema include infectious processes, vitamin deficiency, and trauma due to direct impact head and neck injury. Generalized brain edema is life threatening due to the rise in intracranial pressure associated with it. Edema aggravates the neurological deficits of numerous conditions resulting from focal vascular and demyelinating lesions. SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) scanning has ushered in a new age of neurological investigation with patients who have developed disorders of the brain and related function. SPECT has the ability to image the pathophysiological blood flow throughout the brain. SPECT scans together with initial hyperbaric chamber sessions are being used with numerous forms of neurological deficits. HBOT and repeat SPECT scans help identify viable non-functional brain tissue, which have the potential to respond to the stimulatory and reparative effects of repetitive HBOT. This potential is realized with actual increased brain blood flow on the final SPECT scans and reduction of hyperintensity changes on MRI. The motor and cognitive improvements of a patient can be correlated with recovery of specific previously hypometabolic brain areas. This data also supports the fact that traumatic, vascular and anoxic brain injuries and long-standing ischemic hypoxia have a common pathophysiology, including recoverable idling neurons in a penumbra zone surrounding infarct regions. SPECT/MRI and effective HBOT have been investigated with significant improvement in the following conditions including 'multiple sclerosis, supra nuclear palsy, near drowning, chronic carbon monoxide poisoning, cerebral palsy and numerous neuropathies, motor neuron disorders and ischemic degenerative processes including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia and toxic disorders' (Jain 1999).
Case Study : 23 year old female with Impact Closed Head Injury As previously mentioned in the section titled Stroke, Professor Jain (1996) reports on a 23-year-old female with Chronic Brain Contusion. The patient suffers mutism, left sided paresis, lack of coordination, balance problems, daily mood swings and temperamental behaviour. Five and half years before HBOT she suffered a severe motor car accident and sustained severe left sided frontal temporal closed head injury. She was in a coma and required full respiratory support for three weeks and eventually made a partial recovery. The patient entered multiple rehabilitative programs, consulted numerous doctors and received multiple medical and non-medical forms of therapy, even making a religious pilgrimage to a religious site in Yugoslavia. Baseline SPECT scans revealed significant regions of reduced and near absent right sided blood brain barrier activity and marked right cerebellar hypoperfusion and widening of the interhemispheric fissure. One initial HBOT session was performed, followed by an additional SPECT, which revealed recoverable tissue due to tracer uptake in both the right temporal and right cerebellar regions. The case continued with an additional 40 HBOT sessions followed by further SPECT studies, and then an additional 40 HBOT (total 80 HBOT sessions) with SPECT. Overall conclusive and measurable improvements were recorded with significant increased blood brain blood flow (demonstrated by SPECT) and clinical improvement – mood swings, gait, balance, bladder control, cognitive and general behaviour.
The effects of Hyperbaric Medicine on Closed Head Injury Meyer (1968) provided evidence for a Pasteur effect (inhibition of glycolysis by oxygen) with hyperoxia (increased oxygen supply) in the case of carbohydrate metabolism in cerebrovascular disease. Inhalation of 100% pure oxygen significantly decreased the cerebral metabolic rate for lactate and pyruvate. Since cerebral blood flow decreased and the cerebral pressure of oxygen increased, total glycolysis was decreased. Pierce and Jacobson (1977) reviewed the role of HBOT in cerebral edema and concluded: “This therapy directly decreases vasogenic brain edema and due to improvement of the oxygen delivery to hypoxic tissue acts on cytotoxic brain edema as well. The mechanism underlying the potentially beneficial action of HBOT appears clear and is well supported by both animal and clinical studies. HBOT should be considered an adjunct for patients who are not sufficiently responsive to standard methods”. Sukoff and Ragatz (1982) concluded that ‘HBOT relieves cerebral edema by reducing cerebral blood flow but continues to maintain the levels of cerebral oxygenation. This mechanism reduces further damage due to plasma and vascular leakage, which precipitates localized edema and swelling resulting in localized ischemia that further inhibits essential nutritional support leading to cellular dysfunction’. Studies performed by Kohshi (1991) demonstrated the effectiveness of Hyperbaric Oxygenation in reducing the raised intracranial pressure of patients suffering brain tumours and cerebrovascular disease. This demonstrates that reduced intracranial pressure is initially due to direct vasoconstriction caused by hyperoxia (increased oxygen delivery). Hyperbaric Medicine lowers the raised intracranial pressure in traumatic cerebral edema. The effects of Hyperbaric Oxygenation can persist after conclusion of a chamber session and there are no reported negative effects. If the intracranial pressure remains elevated this factor alone will precipitate further cerebral damage. Studies have shown that the injured brain is susceptible to oxygen toxicity if excessively high pressures are used. This is not a problem as the pressures used with Hyperbaric Medicine seldom exceed 2 ATA, in fact 1.5 ATA are used with most neurological patients (Jain 1995). In acute and semi-acute neurologic conditions, HBOT has been demonstrated to promote beneficial effects including :
Selected summary of published papers regarding Hyperbaric Oxygenation for Anoxic Encephalopathy and Coma
Conclusions
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Do
Wheelchairs Hinder Brain Injured Recovery? 
