Chen
Muscle pain and markers of muscle damage were improved after a course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Clinical Bottom Line:
1. HBOT reduced some markers of muscle injury
2. HBOT resulted in lower pain scores after ten treatments for muscle strain injuries in athletes.
Citation/s:1.Chen CY, Chou WY, Ko JY, Lee MS, Wu RW. Early recovery of exercise-related muscular injury by HBOT. BioMed Research International. 6289380; 2019
Lead author's name and fax:Re-Wen Wu: ray4595@gmail.com
Three-part Clinical Question:In elite athletes, does exposure to hyperbaric oxygen compared to standard approaches, promote recovery from muscular injury?
Search Terms: Athletes; recovery; pain
The Study:
Double-blinded concealed randomised controlled trial with intention-to-treat.
The Study Patients: Adult baseball players with minor muscle strains lasting more than two weeks that did not interrupt their athletic schedule.
Control group (N = 23; 21 analysed): Sham treatment breathing air at 1.3ATA on the same time schedule as the experimental group.
Experimental group (N = 23; 20 analysed): 100% oxygen breathing at 2.5 ATA for 60m minutes daily for 10 days.
The Evidence:
Measure |
Sham Group |
HBOT Group |
Difference |
95% CI | ||
Mean |
SD |
Mean |
SD | |||
|
Serum creatine phosphokinase (U/L) at end of 10 treatments |
327.1 |
181.1 |
158.5 |
78.0 |
168.6 |
-158.8 to 192.8 |
|
Myoglobin (ng/mL) at end of 10 treatments |
43.3 |
19.4 |
19.4 |
10.2 |
25.3 |
-92.6 to 143.2 |
|
Pain on average in the last week (0 to 10 scale) at end of 10 treatments |
3.5 |
1.6 |
1.8 |
1.6 |
8.29 |
-49.7 to 66.3 |
Comments:
1. Generally high-quality study with good randomisation and blinding
2. Study was powered at 80% to show a difference of 12.9 on the 'Brief Pain Inventory'. This appears to be a combination of seven pain dimensions for pain intensity and effect on life, but that result is not given in the paper - only the individual element scores.
3. Elements of the BPI were all less than 5 and we have presumed these are out of a maximum score of 10.
4. These results are at odds with previously published data- this may reflect a different demographic and the grade and chronicity of injury
Appraised by:Mike Bennett; Sunday, 26 April 2020
Email: m.bennett@unsw.edu.au
Kill or Update By: April 2023
