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TOPLINE:

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) plus routine care was linked to a 19% improvement in treatment effectiveness and significantly improved neurologic recovery, activities of daily living (ADL), and quality of life compared with routine postoperative care alone in patients who underwent intracranial aneurysm surgery, a new meta-analysis showed.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 randomized controlled trials from China that were published between 2007 and 2025.
• The analysis focused on more than 2000 adults who underwent surgical treatment for intracranial aneurysms, including microsurgical clipping or endovascular coiling.
• About half of the participants then underwent HBOT (administration of 100% oxygen at > 1.4 ATA pressure) plus standard postoperative treatment and the other half received standard care with or without sham therapy but with no HBOT (control group).
• Study outcomes included treatment effectiveness, neurologic function, ADL, self-care ability as measured by Barthel Index scores, and overall quality of life as measured by the 36-item Short Form Survey.

TAKEAWAY:

• The HBOT group showed significantly improved treatment response (combined risk ratio, 1.19; P < .00001) and neurologic function (pooled standardized mean difference [SMD], -0.6; P < .00001) compared to the control group.
• HBOT was also linked to significantly improved functional independence, demonstrated by higher ADL (pooled SMD, 1.2; P < .00001) and Barthel Index scores (pooled SMD, 1.0; P < .00001), and improved health-related quality-of-life measures (pooled SMD, 1.3; P < .00001) compared to standard care alone.
• The results were consistent across studies, with minimal heterogeneity noted for all outcomes.

IN PRACTICE:

“These findings provide a strong rationale for integrating HBOT into perioperative care protocols, although further high-quality studies are needed to confirm and extend these results,” the investigators wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Yue Gao, Civil Aviation General Hospital, Beijing, China. It was published online on September 11 in Frontiers in Neurology.

LIMITATIONS:

The included trials were conducted exclusively in China, with some having small sample sizes and most reporting only short-term outcomes, limiting generalizability. Variation in assessments tools may have introduced reporting variability, and insufficient reporting on allocation concealment and blinding raised concerns of selection and performance bias. Additionally, the long-term safety and effectiveness of HBOT remained unestablished.

DISCLOSURES:

The investigators reported having no relevant conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.