Positive Outcomes of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Durable in Long-COVID

Convincing One-Year Data from Small Randomized Trial. Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH 

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Many patients with long-COVID syndrome have seen countless doctors and have taken a multitude of vitamins, supplements, and prescription drugs. Those fortunate enough to have been referred to and completed a course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in my practice seemed to have fared better than most.

Hadanny et al, have reported the long-term results (one year) from their original small randomized trial. The protocol comprised of 40 daily sessions, five sessions per week within a 2-month period. The HBOT protocol included breathing 100% oxygen by mask at 2 atmospheres of pressure for 90 min with 5-min air breaks every 20 min. Control patients had HBOT without additional oxygen or pressure.

“In our previous randomized controlled trial, we documented significant improvements in cognitive, psychiatric, fatigue, sleep, and pain symptoms among long Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID) patients who underwent hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). This longitudinal long-term follow-up included 31 patients with reported post COVID-19 cognitive symptoms, who underwent 40 daily sessions of HBOT. Participants were recruited more than one year after completion of the last HBOT session. Quality of life, assessed using the short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire revealed, that the long-term results exhibited a similar magnitude of improvement as the short-term outcomes following HBOT across most domains. Regarding sleep quality, improvements were observed in global score and across five sleep domains with effect sizes of moderate magnitude during the short-term evaluation, and these improvements persisted in the long-term assessment (effect size (ES1) = 0.47-0.79). In the realm of neuropsychiatric symptoms, as evaluated by the brief symptom inventory-18 (BSI-18), the short-term assessment following HBOT demonstrated a large effect size, and this effect persisted at the long-term evaluation.”

Hadanny A, Zilberman-Itskovich S, Catalogna M, Elman-Shina K, Lang E, Finci S, Polak N, Shorer R, Parag Y, Efrati S. Long term outcomes of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in post covid condition: longitudinal follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 15;14(1):3604. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53091-3. PMID: 38360929; PMCID: PMC10869702.
In summary, this is good news for those suffering with long-COVID and with vaccine injury syndromes. Improvements in a range of objectively measured outcomes are sustained over time. These data further support referral for HBOT in patient with post-acute sequalae after SARS-CoV-2 infection and or COVID-19 vaccination.