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KCE Reports 74 Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy 89
7 CONCLUSIONS
In this report we attempt to describe the history of hyperbaric oxygenation therapy
(HBOT), the evidence for its use, the economic value of its application and cost for
patients, hospitals and society, and also the current application of this technology in
Belgium and in other countries.
Despite the fact that HBOT has been in use for several decades, evidence on its
effectiveness is remarkably poor. Although its use appears to be, under strict
precautions, relatively save, it is important to evaluate this therapy carefully for several
indications, to avoid overutilisation in indications where no benefit is likely, and to avoid
underutilisation when potential benefits might be foregone because of lack of
knowledge.
Several indications have been accepted by medical scientific societies, but due to the
paucity of properly randomised clinical study results, those acceptances are mainly
based on a consensual decision making process rather than on an evidence based
medicine approach. For a limited number of indications (mainly decompression illness)
HBOT is likely to be important. For some indications there is limited evidence for
benefits, for a few other indications HBOT is unlikely to be beneficial, and for several
other indications HBOT might be beneficial but we just do not know. Therefore it is
important to organise randomised clinical studies to sort out those uncertainties.
In Table 37 we present an overview of the key results of this report.