ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the effect of hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning on attention network functioning after chemotherapy.Methods:A total of 68 patients scheduled to receive chemotherapy were randomly divided into a hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning group (HBOPC, n=22), a hyperbaric oxygen sensitizing chemotherapy group (HBOSC, n=26), and a control group ( n=20). After 6 cycles of chemotherapy, the attention network test was administered to the patients in all three groups. Results:After the treatment, the average alerting efficiencies of the HBOPC and HBOSC groups were significantly higher than that of the control group. Their executive control was also significantly better. There were also significant differences in executive control between that the HBOPC and HBOSC groups, with the HBOPC group performed better. The post-treatment total reaction times of both the HBOPC and HBOSC groups were significantly shorter than that of the control group. That of the HBOPC group was significantly shorter than the HBOSC group′s total.Conclusions:Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can effectively reduce network function damage in terms of alerting and executive control. HBOPC protects executive control better than HBOSC.