A Case Series of 39 United States Veterans with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Importance: The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reported 358,088 mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) among U.S. service members worldwide between the years 2000 2020. with mTBI have higher rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depressive disorder, substance use anxiety suicide than their healthy counterparts. Currently, there is no effective treatment for mTBI. Objective: To assess efficacy hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) as a option Design, Setting, Participants: This case series 39 diagnosed treated HBOT. Of these participants, 36 were men 3 women, ages ranged 28 69. was administered by 22 Project (a veteran-centered nonprofit organization) using monoplace chambers located in Delray Beach, Florida. Neuroimaging Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography (SPECT) scans performed pre- post-HBOT made available secondary analysis. Nilearn Python Library utilized to visualize corresponding neuroimaging data. A two-sided paired t-test R used compare post-treatment results. Intervention: full HBOT involved 40 sessions. Each session consisted administration 100% at 1.5 atmospheres 90 min, twice day, 20 days, Mondays Fridays only. Main Outcome Measure: Perfusion brain’s Brodmann Areas (BA) comparing NeuroGam software analysis from SPECT scan multi-symptom self-reports. Results: comparison showed significant improvement perfusion, difference statistically (p < 0.001). Separately, participants reduced pain, improved mood, better sleep, an outcome that translated into average about 46.6% measured symptoms. Conclusions Relevance: demonstrated could be useful veterans. study marked both perfusion on imaging first quantitative numerical measurements demonstrate veterans TBI Future research studies are currently being done validate important findings.