Typically
steroids are used to treat tissue damage. Dr. Gesell hopes breathing in a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber will be a better option.
Breathing for Your Brain
Ivanhoe Broadcast News
February 24, 2005
CINCINNATI (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Radiation is often used to treat patients with brain tumors. But many times, the radiation treatments leave behind damaged brain tissue. Now, researchers may have found a way to stop and even reverse that problem.
Dave Clark doesn't need a video store. He catches a movie every weekday at the hospital. Clark spends five days a week, 130 minutes a day, in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to treat brain injury after radiation. He's had two brain tumors removed in the last four years.
Laurie Beth Gesell, M.D., a hyperbaric medicine expert at University Hospital in Cincinnati, says the damaged brain tissue leads to a variety of problems. "They might have numbness. They might have thinking problems. They might have speaking problems. They might have things as generalized as just severe headaches," she tells Ivanhoe.
Typically
steroids are used to treat tissue damage. Dr. Gesell hopes breathing in a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber will be a better option.
The MRI on the left shows a pattern of brain tissue damage surrounded by swelling. The MIR on the right shows the difference after several months of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
"For the most part, hyperbarics is an incredibly safe type of treatment," Dr. Gesell says. "All it is, is that we have a person breathe oxygen, and we pressurize that oxygen."
MRIs
show the treatment improves nearly 80 percent of patients. Clark is one of them.
And he says the movies are a bonus.
Dr. Gesell says 90 percent of the patients in the study also show improvement during physical examinations.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Pat Samson
Media Relations
University Hospital
Health Alliance Business Center
Cincinnati, OH 45229
(513) 585-6163
samsonpa@healthall.com
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.