Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and its suitability as an adjuvant for treatment of covid-19 patients: A review

ABSTRACT

The outbreak of the SARS CoV2 ’Coronavirus pandemic’ is believed to have originated in Wuhan in 2019 as a zoonotic spread from bats to humans. It is a highly communicable infection-causing rapid human to human transmission of the virus by virtue of its infectious and pleomorphic nature. The virus has affected millions of people worldwide, with numbers still rising with each passing day. Depleting oxygen saturation levels is amongst the prime concerns in the majority of infected patients. Nasal prongs, face masks, mechanical ventilation and extracorporeal membrane (ECMO) are the commonly used modes of oxygen delivery in such patients. These methods though mostly successful, at times fail to restore the depleting oxygen levels to normal. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves the administration of 100% O2 in a special chamber whose pressure is maintained at a level greater than 1 ATP. The main purpose for raising the pressure within the chamber is that as the atmospheric pressure increases, the saturation levels of oxygen in the blood also increase, which eventually result in increased overall tissue oxygenation. This article provides a systematic and wholesome review on the basic principle of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, its effects on the body at a microscopic and macroscopic level, its various uses and its suitability as an adjuvant for the treatment of select COVID-19 infected patients.