Allan M. Spiegel M.D. - RSD Therapy

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), also known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), is a chronic neurological syndrome that can cause severe pain, sensitivity to touch and light, swelling in tissues, excessive sweating, muscle atrophy and skin discoloration.

There is currently no cure for RSD and patients can often feel frustrated trying to find treatments that offer some relief.

Traditionally, the symptoms of RSD are treated with medication. That offers some relief for those trying to manage the cycle of pain, but an increasing number of patients are seeking alternative or supplement therapies to help regularly manage symptoms.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is one of those proven and increasingly relied upon therapies.

There has been a fair amount of media attention recently dedicated to the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to help prevent the loss of limbs resulting from diabetes.

Those with diabetes are at an increased risk for developing infections. Left untreated or under-treated, foot infections can end up infecting the bone.

Gangrene and tissue death complicate the infection and the diabetic patient will not be able to heal. Amputation is often turned to as the only alternative.

With more than $1.5 billion spent annually on lower limb amputations in response to diabetic complications, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) offers effective results in decreasing the need for amputation.

That equates to less patients facing the physical and mental ramifications of amputation, and less of a burden on the health care system for the drastic procedure and resulting therapies.

In my last blog post, I wrote about the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to help ease the symptoms of traumatic brain injury in service men and women returning from the current engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I have been a practicing neurologist for more than 25 years and a specialist in hyperbaric medicine for over 12. And I am proud to work with our wounded warriors.

I have been and will continue to be dedicated to doing all I can to urge legislators and military leadership to make HBOT available to the more than 320,000 service members suffering from TBIs since September 11, 2001.  

The current military engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq have resulted in an unprecedented number of military members returning home with traumatic brain injuries. 

In spite of having better protective gear than during past military engagements, soldiers are encountering new tactics, such as IEDs, that are resulting in head injuries that are both visible and not visible to the naked eye. 

When there are external injuries, it is much easier for medics and physicians to know to test for neurological damage. When there are only internal injuries, damage may not be immediately recognizable and may, in fact, go untested and untreated for years. 

The military and medical communities are learning to better recognize, test for and treat brain injuries in military personnel returning from deployments. 

And hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is one of those treatments showing promising results easing the effects of those injuries.