Hyperbaric oxygen for diabetic peripheral neuropathy: A systematic review / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore whether there is enough clinical evidence to confirm that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) does more good than other treatments in treating patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Methods Published clinical trials on hyperbaric oxygen treatment for diabetic peripheral neuropathy were collected through electronic searches of PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMbase, Science Citation Index Expanded, the China Biological Medicine Database (CBM-disc), the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (from the date of establishment of the databases to July 2010). The bibliographies of the retrieved articles were also checked. Results A total of 7 trials involving 446 patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy were included. All studies reported positive results regarding the effects,but the quality of the studies was generally poor. The main problem was that most trials were reported as randomized and controlled, but with no description of the methods of randomization, concealment and blinding. Conclusions HBO in the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy is promising based on present evidence. However at present,definite conclusions cannot be drawn about whether hyperbaric oxygen treatment is superior to the alternatives for patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Higher quality randomized and controlled trials are required.