HBO Therapy in Patients with Neurological Deficits after Cardiac Surgeries

Objectives: The hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) can be used to increase the oxygen content in the blood and is therefore a useful treatment in several diseases such as: ischemia, wound healing problems, gas gangrene or air embolism. Successful treatment of HBO in ischemic insult is still controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate patients with neurological deficits after cardiac surgeries, which were consequently treated with HBO.

Methods: 49 patients (35% female, age: 31–84a), undergoing cardiac surgeries (32% coronary revascularisation, 19% valve surgeries, 16% aneurysm repair, 29% combined operations, 4% others) in the years 2002 to 2014 at the Department of Cardiac Surgery in Graz showed neurological deficits postoperatively and were treated with HBO therapy. Medical history of the patients such as preoperatively known neurological deficits, TIAs, strokes or a carotid artery stenosis was noted. Before and after treatment the neurological deficit of each patient was evaluated (Score 0–4) and put in certain groups such as motor deficits, vision disorders, epileptic seizures and others.

Results: Before HBO therapy 67% of the patients presented with high motor deficits Score 3–4, which was reduced to 8, 1% after the therapy. An overall score of neurological rehabilitation showed that almost half of our patients (46,9%) had an improvement of 2 Scores, 30,6% of the patients showed an improvement of more than 3 Scores and just 8,2% showed no improvement.

Conclusion: HBO therapy in patients with neurological deficits after cardiac surgeries showed a clear improvement. The study although is for sure limited due to the missing control group.