Hyperbaric Therapy Offering Hope for Injured Troops on KMOT-TV North Dakota's NBC News Leader

Hyperbaric Therapy Offering Hope for Injured Troops | Video

Anne Kelly

11/3/2009

Oxygen Therapy is used to treat all kinds of ills and now a North Dakota radiologist is hoping it can help American troops suffering brain injuries.

Radiologist Ted Fogarty of Medcenter One is working to prove that the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help the injured brain heal itself. Working with a number of other researchers, including lead researcher Dr. Paul Harch of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Fogarty`s job is to develop visual evidence, such as images of the brain, of whether the therapy is affective.

Fogarty says, he doesn`t think he`ll have a hard time proving his case. He says the 30 veterans in the investigational pilot study will likely have some improvement in brain function after 40 hyperbaric treatments, because hyperbaric therapy does something no other treatments can do. It gets oxygen to parts of the brain that have been starved of it due to swelling. That in turn, Fogarty says, gives tissue and neurons a chance to repair themselves.

"We`ve been taught in medical school that the brain can`t heal itself. Well, from what I see in this imaging and in Dr. Harch`s work and other basic science research in hyperbaric oxygen medicine and neurologic conditions, I don`t think that`s true," says Fogarty.

Instead he says he believes, and hopes to prove, with assistance the brain has healing mechanisms. The pilot study is about half way finished right now. Fogarty and his co-researchers hope to produce enough evidence supporting hyperbaric therapy for the treatment of traumatic brain injuries caused by blasts so more government funds will be granted for continued research on the subject.

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