Nerve Pain
Nerve pain, also called neuropathic pain, is discomfort caused by damage, irritation, or dysfunction in the nervous system. Unlike normal pain that warns you of an injury, nerve pain happens when misfiring nerves send false or exaggerated signals to the brain.
HBOT lowers inflammatory cytokine responses around irritated or injured nerves. It decreases harmful cellular oxidation that worsens nerve damage and amplifies pain signals. HBOT promotes healing, high levels of pressurised oxygen help restore microvascular blood flow and support the repair of the protective myelin sheath surrounding nerves.
Study: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Managing Chronic Pain Syndromes – A Systematic Review
Chronic pain is a major global health problem for which current treatments often provide insufficient relief. Tissue hypoxia and redox imbalance may contribute to its pathophysiology, prompting interest in hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) as a potential adjunctive treatment. This review evaluates the therapeutic effects of HBOT in adults with chronic pain syndromes.
Eleven RCTs (480 participants) were included, predominantly involving fibromyalgia (n=8), with additional studies in complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) (n=1), idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (n=1) and radiation-induced brachial neuropathy (n=1). Sample sizes ranged from 17 to 71 participants. Most trials showed some concerns or high risk of bias, mainly due to subjective outcomes and lack of blinding. In fibromyalgia, HBOT showed consistent within-group improvements in pain, functioning, and quality of life, with some studies demonstrating between-group benefits. Limited evidence in CRPS and trigeminal neuralgia suggested possible benefit, whereas the trial in radiation-induced brachial plexopathy showed no meaningful improvement. HBOT was generally well tolerated, with mostly mild adverse events.
Conclusion: HBOT shows potential as an adjunctive intervention for selected chronic pain syndromes