CHICAGO, Ill. (Ivanhoe Newswire) – Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been around since the 1940’s when it was first used to treat scuba divers who had decompression sickness. More recently, it’s become a successful treatment to help burn victims and heal wounds. Now, doctors have found that it’s helping to ease the pain caused by a debilitating disease that impacts almost a million people. Colitis
During hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment, patients breathe in pure oxygen with air pressure levels up to three times higher than average. It’s been used on a wide variety of problems and now, doctors at Northwestern are using it treat ulcerative colitis.
“Ulcerative colitis is an autoimmune disease of the colon. Basically, your body’s immune system thinks the bacteria in your colon are bad and they keep trying to fight them off. And the bystander in the whole process is your colon that suffers,” explains Parambir Dulai, MD, gastroenterologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Medications that suppress the immune system work for a while, but 70 percent of people will lose response to them within a few years, and many will need surgery. Now, there is another option.
Dr. Dulai further explains, “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy just drives a ton of oxygen into tissues by giving 100 percent oxygen. It’s just driving it into the colon instead of other tissues.”
In a phase two study, patients were placed in the chamber for 90 minutes. After five days, their bleeding was gone. The effects lasted for more than three months.
“You’re talking about people who might need to lose their colon and you’re preventing that and immediately, they’re getting better. They’re feeling better. They just feel more energetic. They feel that sense of relief. And I think it just gives them hope,” Dr. Dulai expresses.
Later this year, Dr. Dulai hopes to begin an 18-site phase three clinical trial. He hopes what they find will be especially helpful for patients who live in rural areas and don’t have access to larger research facilities.
Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Videographer, Editor.
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Source:
MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS
RESEARCH SUMMARY
TOPIC: EASING PAIN: HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY TREATS SEVERE COLITIS
REPORT: MB #5084
BACKGROUND: Colitis is a chronic digestive disease characterized by inflammation of the inner lining of the colon. Infection, loss of blood supply in the colon, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and invasion of the colon wall with collagen or lymphocytic white blood cells are all possible causes of an inflamed colon. In the United States, about 1 million people are affected with ulcerative colitis (UC). The annual incidence is 10.4-12 cases per 100,000 people, and the prevalence rate is 35-100 cases per 100,000 people. Ulcerative colitis is three times more common than Crohn’s disease.
DIAGNOSING: Ulcerative colitis symptoms can vary, depending on the severity of inflammation and where it occurs. Signs and symptoms may include diarrhea (often with blood or pus), abdominal pain and cramping, rectal pain or bleeding, urgency to defecate, inability to defecate despite urgency, weight loss, fatigue, and fever. A doctor may ask about the frequency of your symptoms and when they first started. The doctor will perform a thorough physical exam and use diagnostic tests such as a colonoscopy, stool samples, MRI or CT scans, or an ultrasound.
(Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ulcerative-colitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20353326
https://www.healthline.com/health/colitis#diagnosis
NEW TECHNOLOGY: On May 27, Bristol Myers Squibb officials announced that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Zeposia (ozanimod) for treatment of moderate to severe active ulcerative colitis in adults. Dr. Rudolph Bedford, a gastroenterologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, told health reporters that Zeposia is a potential game changer for people with ulcerative colitis who don’t respond to traditional therapies. Zeposia is an oral medication taken once a day. The dose is 0.92 milligrams.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS REPORT, PLEASE CONTACT:
Megan McCann
(312) 926-5900
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marjorie Bekaert Thomas at mthomas@ivanhoe.com
