PEDIATRICS Vol. 106 No. 6 December 2000, p. e80

ELECTRONIC ARTICLE:
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Cerebral Palsy: Two Complications of Treatment

Received Apr 28, 2000; accepted Jul 14, 2000.

Gabrielle Nuthall^*, Michael Seear^*, Michael Lepawsky, David Wensley^*, Peter Skippen^*, and Juliette Hukin^§

From the ^* Intensive Care Unit, Children's and Women's Hospital;  Hyperbaric Unit, Vancouver General Hospital; and the ^§ Division of Neurology, Children's and Woman's Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.

There is growing interest in the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO₂) for children with cerebral palsy. Although there is no rigorous evidence to support this management, private hyperbaric centers have been established throughout the United States and Canada. There is likely to be increasing pressure on pediatricians and other health professionals to prescribe HBO₂. We describe 2 children with cerebral palsy who suffered significant morbidity immediately after treatment with hyperbaric oxygen. Both the temporal association and pathologic findings suggest that the hyperbaric treatment is likely to have been responsible for the resulting complications. As with any new therapy, we suggest waiting for the results of a randomized, controlled trial before recommending this treatment.

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