Hyperbaric Oxygen in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review of Effectiveness and Safety

Purpose: To report current evidence regarding the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) on the impairments presented by children with cerebral palsy (CP), and its safety.

Materials And Methods: PUBMED, The Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society database were searched by two reviewers. Methodological quality was graded independently by 2 reviewers using the Physiotherapy Evidence Database assessment scale for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and the modified Downs and Black (m-DB) evaluation tool for non RCTs. A meta-analysis was performed where applicable for RCTs.

Results: Five RCTs were identified. Four had a high level of evidence. Seven other studies were observational studies of low quality. All RCTs used 100% O2, 1.5 to 1.75 ATA, as the treatment intervention. Pressurized air was the control intervention in 3 RCTs, and physical therapy in 2. In all but one RCTs, similar improvements were observed regarding motor and/or cognitive functions, in the HBOT and control groups. Adverse events were mostly of mild severity, the most common being middle ear barotrauma (up to 50% of children).

Conclusion: There is high-level evidence that HBOT is ineffective in improving motor and cognitive functions, in children with CP. There is moderate-level evidence that HBOT is associated with a higher rate of adverse events than pressurized air in children.