Allan M. Spiegel M.D. - RSD Therapy

Head injuries, like stroke, deprive certain areas of the brain of oxygen. These are areas that can potentially benefit from hyperbaric oxygen. The size and location of the brain trauma as well as the potential for reversibility of damage within the penumbra (dormant brain tissue surrounding the central core of dead brain tissue) is what dictates the patient's potential for recovery.

Traumatic brain injury causes micro hemorrhages with associated swelling of brain tissue.   As the skull is a fixed, hard, bony structure, which cannot expand with increased pressure within the brain, the delicate structures within the brain become more compressed, thus inhibiting blood flow, thus causing more ischemic damage. The increased barometric pressure during hyperbaric medicine procedures has been shown to offset this compression.

Swelling may take upwards to 9 to 12 months to resolve, during which time the delicate structures within the brain remain compressed, thus limiting normal blood flow to the damaged tissues. HBOT reduces the swelling within the brain and enhances new blood vessel growth (angiogenesis).  This process of forming new capillaries, induced by hyperbaric oxygen, extends from the surrounding healthy brain tissue into the area of the ischemic penumbra.