The use of HBOT for the treatment of COVID-19 is supported by various international clinical trials and recognized by the World Health Organization as a non-drug treatment for COVID-19. For the purposes of a definitive validation at a national level, in accordance with specific legislation in each country of application, clinical trials are currently underway across Europe, Middle East and North America.
Whilst a scientific discussion involves the presentation of thorough clinical documentation, that is not the purpose of this page. For the disclosure of additional information, please complete our contact form.
PROVEN EFFECTIVENESS OF HBOT IN TREATING COVID-19
Clinical trials categorically show that HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) halts viral progression and COVID-19 pneumonia, rejuvenates hypoxic organs, and accelerates the body’s natural healing process.
The unrivalled success of HBOT remains, by and large, unpublicized. In the emergency context of COVID-19, the pharmaceutical industry has license to test numerous drugs without formal experimentation, despite a surge in harmful side effects and fatalities, in the race to patent a lucrative drug cure.
By contrast, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established, drug-free, non-invasive treatment. It has been officially recognised and classified by the World Health Organisation as a treatment for COVID, and is FDA-approved for an array of respiratory disorders and tissue ailments associated with COVID-19.
During the current pandemic, various hospitals from China to USA, have been using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to treat dozens of critically ill COVID-19 patients with pneumonia and severe breathlessness plus multiple high-risk factors (for COVID-mortality) including obesity, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension. The outcome? Following a short cycle of HBOT, patients have consistently made a swift and full recovery.
With reference to the historical success of HBOT for pulmonary diseases and viruses, the US National Institute of Medicine and Health cites: “The concept of using respiratory gases at ambient pressures in the treatment of illnesses dates back three centuries. In 1662 hyperbaric air was used by Henshaw (UK) for the treatment of afflictions of the lung. In 1834, Junod (France), treated a wide variety of ailments, including cardio and pulmonary diseases, carcinomas and diabetic foots at pressures between 2 and 4 atmospheres absolute. In the early 1900s, Orval J Cunningham (USA) observed that people with heart disease and other circulatory disorders did poorly at altitude and improved at sea level forming the basis for his use of hyperbaric air. From 1918-1930, he successfully and consistently treated sufferers of the Spanish flu epidemic with hyperbaric air”. In recent decades, HBOT has proven effective in the treatment of novel viruses including the SARS virus(CoV1) in 2002-2003.
Worldwide, dozens of hospitals are now treating COVID-19 patients with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Basically not. The test requires the availability of a hyperbaric chamber and technicians, as well as the use of a limited number of suitable medical personnel supported by its already existing hospital facility. There is also a wide availability of positive patients at the moment.
For the time being, it would be sufficient to initiate national HBOT trials, during a period of a few days only, with asymptomatic or mild symptom patients to provide important data. Trials will then evolve towards symptomatic patients and those with pre-existing conditions, taking into account the precautions of the case. In the emergency context of COVID-19, numerous drugs have been tested without formal experimentation, and despite the risks of side effects on patients.
BEST SOLUTION TO COMBAT A PANDEMIC
HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) combats virus progression, preventing the decline of patient conditions and the necessity for hospitalization or intensive care (ICU). Results are especially effective when treatment begins early. No other solution has achieved the consistently high results of HBOT.
Hyperbaric oxygen chambers now follow current World Health Organisation guidelines for HBOT/COVID-19 sanitization and operation of monoplace and multiplace chambers, and in so doing are well-placed for collective use. A large number of patients can now be treated and healed in a short period of time, halting symptom progression and the spread of infection to others.
The AC19 DRASS 24-seater chamber is specifically designed for the safe treatment of COVID-19. Patients are separated from each other by means of seat to ceiling transparent guard partitions, which can be easily removed to make way for patients on stretchers. Breathing gases are individually supplied by means of oronasal masks. 2nd stage regulators grant the supply on demand whilst exhaled gas is discharged from the chamber via a special line and sanitized.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy eases the strain on the healthcare system and lessens the number of highly specialized nurses and doctors required by drastically reducing the number of patients hospitalized, and the number eventually requiring admittance to ICU (intensive care units).
Oxygen is the body’s life force and so it is no wonder that it is proven to be more effective, and cost-effective, in the treatment of viruses, respiratory disorders, tissue and organ damage.
An HBOT chamber has an infinitely lower cost compared to the setting up and management of intensive care units with their costly medical equipment and expensive drugs.
Once a comprehensive verification of HBOT efficacy has been finalized, for people without counterindications, the hyperbaric chamber considerably reduces the danger and complications of COVID-19, allowing the resumption of normal activities and a reassessment/easing of containment measures in place.
DRASS has already completed the AC-19 project for the rapid and industrial construction of large-capacity and customized transportable chambers for the treatment of COVID-19 positive patients. The recovery rates are unparallelled by any treatment (drug or non-drug) thus far trialled by the pharmaceutical industry.
Invaluable against COVID-19
If the virus was a master key and the locks are our cells, hyperbaric oxygen alters both the key and the lock so that the virus becomes unable to gain access and do damage.
HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy) increases nitric oxide, a gas molecule that alters the lipid structure (fats) of the virus and modifies the viral RNA. Doing so blocks the replication of the virus and prevents it from binding to the ACE2 receptor. These promising results have been seen in the treatment and viral suppression of AIDS HIV, and the recovery of SARS-CoV-1 patients during the SARS epidemic of 2002-2003.
By enabling the diffusion of a higher concentration of oxygen to hypoxic (oxygen-starved) organs, HBOT successfully treats lung trauma and pneumonia. It reduces and destroys the cytokines and interleukin 6 molecules that feed the inflammation responsible for respiratory failure. Haemoglobin blood cells become fully populated with oxygen molecules (4 molecules can bind to each blood cells). This accelerated oxygenation effectively transports vital repair materials, such as fibronectin and proteoglycan, to reach areas of damage and speed up the restoration process.
In healthy people, the virus is normally eliminated by nitrogen monoxide and oxygen free radicals.
Over 50% of mortality in (non-HBOT treated) COVID-19 patients has occurred in those with pre-existing dysmetabolic hypercholesterolaemia, diabetes, obesity and/or cardiovascular diseases related to impaired normal endothelial function and reduced production of nitrogen monoxide.
In patients with comorbidities, hyperbaric oxygen therapy restores the normal synthesis of nitrogen monoxide (through the genetic expression of Nitric Oxide Synthase) allowing the body to eliminate the virus as it does in a healthy person. This genetic activation (up-regulation) is reinforced by the implementation of a cycle of HBOT sessions. All patients with high-risk comorbidities who began HBOT prior to, or in the initial stages of, hospitalization have made a full recovery.
The protocol of specified pressure and duration includes five hyperbaric treatments, one per day for five consecutive days. Each session is approximately 60 minutes.
In clinical trials to date, every critically ill COVID-19 patient in intensive care that was treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy has made a full recovery. Nevertheless, early treatment is always advisable for an effective recovery that prevents viral progression necessitating intensive care.
Outcomes, of course, are largely dependent on the severity of any pre-existing conditions (comorbidities) known to be high-risk factors in connection with COVID-19. Having said that, of the dozens of critically ill patients who have accessed a cycle of HBOT, most also had multiple pre-existing high-risk factors (for COVID complications) such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity – and, even so, all recovered.