Brain Injury and Recovery with Hyperbaric Oxygen
Hyperbaric Oxygen simply means oxygen given at increased barometric pressure.
The Problem:
The complex and almost continuous electrical activity of the brain is so discreet that we are unaware that it is the mechanism behind communication and thus intellectual and motor function. Brain injury can lead to a blockage of the electrical pathways.
Depending on the location of the injury, the brain's attempts to re-route through blocked pathways may cause frustrated discharges of activity known as seizures.
What Causes the Blockage?
SPECT scans (computerized brain mapping) show that not only does brain injury produce cell death, but it also reduces essential blood flow to a wider area of brain tissue surrounding the dead cells where signal re-routing might be expected to take place.
How Does This Happen?
After brain injury many blood capillaries around the area of cell death become torn open. The liquid part of the blood (the plasma) then leaks out, causing a swelling that may be very extensive. This reduces cerebral blood flow in the affected areas.
Reduction in blood flow means a reduction of essential nutrition (most vital oxygen), and a build up of waste products from local biochemical reactions (e.g. lactate and calcium), which shuts down normal cell function and further blocks pathways.
Why Doesn't Capillary Healing Happen?
If the capillaries are to heal, they desperately need oxygen. Unfortunately, the tiny tubules leading to the torn capillaries become constricted because of the damage.
This means that the red blood cells needed to bring the healing oxygen are too big to get through and simply get stuck in the "pipes." Thus, the plasma that is normally very low in oxygen continues to pour out, maintaining the swelling with all its related problems which, if left unattended, would last for a lifetime
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