Pre and Post-Surgical Recovery with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) supercharges our healing after surgery through pressure and high plasma oxygen, while increasing tissue flexibility, strength, reducing scarring, swelling and inflammation, and growing new blood vessels at the site of injury by stimulating growth hormones that generate stem cells, fibroblasts, collagen, endothelial cells for blood vessel repair and regeneration, and other healing factors.
After surgery, patients have variable speeds of recovery and hyperbaric oxygen therapy promotes fast and efficient healing by increasing circulation to the post-surgical site, growing new blood vessels in the area, reducing inflammation and swelling, releasing progenitor and stem cells, enhancing regional immune function, and releasing growth factors and other vital components for fast and effective healing. It is also used as a preconditioning to promote better surgical outcomes, as shown through research.
Common symptoms
Pre and Post-Surgical Recovery can cause a wide range of symptoms, but common symptoms include:
- Inflammation
- Swelling
- Poor Blood Circulation
- Blood Vessel Damage
How can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help with Pre and Post-Surgical Recovery?
After surgery, patients have variable speeds of recovery and hyperbaric oxygen therapy promotes fast and efficient healing by increasing circulation to the post-surgical site, growing new blood vessels in the area, reducing inflammation and swelling, releasing progenitor and stem cells, enhancing regional immune function, and releasing growth factors and other vital components for fast and effective healing. It is also used as a preconditioning to promote better surgical outcomes, as shown through research.
- providing abundant levels of plasma-rich oxygen to our tissue for healing
- reducing inflammation throughout our brain and body
- reducing swelling
- increasing fibroblast production which are critical to healing
- reducing scarring (fibrosis)
- increasing stem cell production for tissue repair
- improving detoxification
- increasing collagen production, which is the most abundant protein in the body and is a major contributor to the health of our joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, bone, and skin.
- increasing flexibility of joints and muscles (by stimulating the hydroxylation of proline and lysine)
- stimulating osteoblasts that are essential for new bone production and repair.
- stimulating release of growth factors such as trophic factor to enhance repair and regeneration at the cellular level.
- stimulating growth of new blood vessels to supply tissue with greater circulation and oxygen to promote repair and regeneration by releasing greater amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor
- balancing our fight or flight and relaxation and digestion systems by strengthening the health of our autonomic nervous system, impacting blood flow within our brain that leads to dizziness, headaches, slow processing, memory changes and many other symptoms
- enhancing cerebrospinal fluid flow
Other benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a quickly evolving science and the full benefits are continually being discovered. HBOT increases the amount of oxygen in our bloodstream and increases circulation to deliver abundant amounts of oxygen to the brain, supersaturating our tissue with energy needed for healing, growth, and repair. This creates a healthier environment for our brain to work and control our autonomic nervous system. Because of this, the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be found in all parts of the body and in a wide range of ways. Some benefits can include:
- Faster healing from trauma
- Reduced inflammation
- Increased stem cell release
- Improved brain health
- Detoxification
- Improved autonomic nervous system function
- …and many more
Learn more about the many benefits of HBOT and how it works.
Supporting Research
- Studies (Li Sun et al) show that preconditioning with HBOT prior to surgery attenuated postoperative cognitive impairments in aged rats.
- Blood vessels are critical not only for organ growth in the embryo, but also for repair of wounded tissue in the adult (Valazquez).
- Hyperoxia has effects of a number of cell signaling events that converge to influence cell recruitment/chemotaxis and gene regulation/protein synthesis responses which mediate wound healing (Fosen et al.).
- Oxidative stress is recognized as playing a role in stem cell mobilization from peripheral sites and also cell function (Fosen et al.).
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is commonly used as treatment in several diseases, such as non-healing chronic wounds, late radiation injuries and carbon monoxide poisoning (Wolde et al).
- HBOT has shown that preconditioning for surgery is a potential new treatment application, which may reduce complication rates and hospital stay (Wolde et al.).
- HBOT-induced oxidative stress reduces the concentrations of pro-inflammatory acute phase proteins, interleukins and cytokines and increases growth factors and other pro-angiogenesis cytokines. Several articles only noted this surge after the first HBOT session or for a short duration after each session. The anti-inflammatory status following HBOT may be mediated by hyperoxia interfering with NF-κB and IκBα (Wolde et al.).
Sources
- Sun L, Xie K, Zhang C, Song R, Zhang H. Hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning attenuates postoperative cognitive impairment in aged rats. Neuroreport. 2014 Jun 18;25(9):718-24. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000181. PMID: 24870985.
- Thom SR, Bhopale VM, Velazquez OC, Goldstein LJ, Thom LH, Buerk DG. Stem cell mobilization by hyperbaric oxygen. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2006 Apr;290(4):H1378-86. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00888.2005. Epub 2005 Nov 18. PMID: 16299259.
- Goldstein LJ, Gallagher KA, Bauer SM, Bauer RJ, Baireddy V, Liu ZJ, Buerk DG, Thom SR, Velazquez OC. Endothelial progenitor cell release into circulation is triggered by hyperoxia-induced increases in bone marrow nitric oxide. Stem Cells. 2006 Oct;24(10):2309-18. doi:
- Fosen KM, Thom SR. Hyperbaric oxygen, vasculogenic stem cells, and wound healing. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2014 Oct 10;21(11):1634-47. doi: 10.1089/ars.2014.5940. Epub 2014 May 19. PMID: 24730726; PMCID: PMC4175035.
- Velazquez OC. Angiogenesis and vasculogenesis: inducing the growth of new blood vessels and wound healing by stimulation of bone marrow-derived progenitor cell mobilization and homing. J Vasc Surg. 2007 Jun;45 Suppl A(Suppl A):A39-47. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2007.02.068. PMID: 17544023; PMCID: PMC2706093.
- Lee YS, Chio CC, Chang CP, Wang LC, Chiang PM, Niu KC, Tsai KJ. Long course hyperbaric oxygen stimulates neurogenesis and attenuates inflammation after ischemic stroke. Mediators Inflamm. 2013;2013:512978. doi: 10.1155/2013/512978. Epub 2013 Feb 21. PMID: 23533308; PMCID: PMC3595722.
- Heyboer M 3rd, Sharma D, Santiago W, McCulloch N. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Side Effects Defined and Quantified. Adv Wound Care (New Rochelle). 2017 Jun 1;6(6):210-224. doi: 10.1089/wound.2016.0718. PMID: 28616361; PMCID: PMC5467109.
- De Wolde SD, Hulskes RH, Weenink RP, Hollmann MW, Van Hulst RA. The Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygenation on Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Angiogenesis. Biomolecules. 2021 Aug 14;11(8):1210. doi: 10.3390/biom11081210. PMID: 34439876; PMCID: PMC8394403.
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