[Hyperbaric oxygenation in neurotraumatology]

The use of hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) as a therapeutic measure has a favorable effect, in the postoperative period also, on traumatic affections of different levels of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerve trunks and plexuses. It allows the severity of the neurologic deficit and the degree of the patient's disability to be reduced and in some cases it prevents the growth of vital disorders. At the same time, the effect may exert a certain load on the adaptation mechanisms which are very limited in many neurosurgical patients. In view of this, the tolerance of the patient's organism to this load must be taken into account in choosing the HBO schedules. The tolerance is decisively determined by the intactness of the integral function of the central nervous system and diminishes markedly as the impairment of the consciousness of patients with primary affection of the brain gradually becomes deeper and longer in duration.