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The effects of intermittent hyperbaric oxygen on pain perception and eccentric strength in a human injury model

University of British Columbia

In order to determine whether intermittent exposures to hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) enhance recovery from a model muscle injury, 70 subjects performed intense eccentric contractions on a leg dynamometer (300 repetitions in 30 minutes). They were then treated in a monoplace hyperbaric chamber in two separate phases of this study. In the first phase, there were 4 groups: control, HBO, delayed HBO, and sham. A 3-day HBO group, 5-day HBO group, and a sham group made up the second phase. The hyperbaric groups breathed 100% oxygen for 60 minutes at 2.0 atmospheres absolute (ATA). The sham group breathed 21% oxygen for 60 minutes at 1.2 ATA. Recovery was monitored by testing eccentric strength pre- and postexercise, 48h postexercise, and 96h postexercise and pain perception through daily pain scales (visual analogue scales). In phase I, a significant difference (p = 0.021) in recovery of eccentric torque was noted was noted in the HBO group compared to the delayed HBO, control, and sham groups (69.2 Nm vs. 44.9 Nm, 47.3 Nm, and 49.6 Nm. respectively). In phase II, significant differences were observed between the 5-day HBO and sham groups. From the raw strength data, the mean torque value of the HBO group was significantly greater than the sham group at 96 hours postexercise (p= 0.023; 191.9 Nm and 147.2 Nm, respectively). For strength recovery from postexercise to 96h postexercise, a significant difference was noted between the same groups at p = 0.005 (54.9 Nm versus 4.3 Nm). No significant differences were noted for pain perception in either phase or among combined data. These results are complicated by the lack of similarity between the 3-day and 5-day HBO groups in phase II. The 3-day group had 3 out of 10 anomalous sets of data for eccentric torque, which contributes to much of the group differences. The results suggest that treatment with hyperbaric oxygen may enhance recovery of eccentric strength from a delayed onset muscle soreness injury.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-02-06

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4223

Human Kinetics

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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