How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Can Help With Traumatic Brain Injuries

Each year in the United States, there are about 1.7 million traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and about 5.3 million Americans are living with disability due to a TBI.

Whether it’s a moderate concussion or a serious TBI, early care is critical as the brain tries to heal and repair itself. One treatment that can play a valuable role is hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which can boost brain health at a critical time. 

At Clover Oxygen Hyperbarics and Wound Center in Aledo, Texas, Dr. Leon Tio and his team are pleased to help TBI patients recover more quickly and strongly through hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Here’s a look at why hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be a beneficial part of any traumatic brain injury recovery program.

What happens to your brain when it’s injured

If the name isn’t clear enough, a traumatic brain injury is just that — trauma to your brain that can damage this fragile organ.

Being involved in an injury can affect your brain’s structure as well as all of the delicate synapses, or lines of communication, between brain cells. As a result, the brain becomes disorganized as nerve pathways are cut off.

The degree of symptoms depends entirely upon the extent of the damage in the brain and in the nerve fibers, but many people with TBIs encounter issues like:

• Difficulty with memory
• Cognitive deficits in word finding, problem solving, and processing
• Behavioral issues, including increased irritability and excitability
• Dizziness
• Fatigue
• Headaches

These issues are often temporary and do get better as the brain heals, but sometimes the damage is great enough that permanent disability is possible.

Getting healing resources to your brain

Each of the trillions of cells in your body requires oxygen, and this is certainly true of your brain cells. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that oxygen is the most important healing resource in your body, whether it’s an external wound or an internal brain injury.

After a TBI, your brain sets to work to reorganize itself, repair the damage, and reconnect neural pathways. Through hyperbaric oxygen therapy, our goal is to give your brain a boost in oxygen that can help with these goals.

A hyperbaric oxygen chamber delivers pressurized and pure oxygen directly into your body where your blood can pick it up and deliver it to your damaged brain to help with:

• Reducing any inflammation
• Encouraging revascularization (new blood vessel growth)
• Increasing blood flow
• Reactivating neurons that might have been deprived of oxygen
• Increasing cerebral metabolism

In short, hyperbaric oxygen therapy provides your brain with a key resource that can help healing on every front. 

Early intervention is important

During the first months after a TBI, there’s a good deal of neuroplasticity in your brain as it works to re-establish neural pathways and communications between neurons.

This means it’s a good idea to undergo hyperbaric oxygen therapy as soon as possible so your brain has access to the resources it needs right from the start. With this extra boost in oxygen, our goal is to get your brain to rebuild more strongly and quickly.

If you or a loved one is dealing with a traumatic brain injury and you want to learn whether you’re a candidate for hyperbaric oxygen therapy, please contact Clover Oxygen Hyperbarics and Wound Center today to schedule an appointment.