Int J Med Sci 2018; 15(8):782-787. doi:10.7150/ijms.24755 This issue Cite
Review
1. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
2. Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
3. School of Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
4. Department of Liver Surgery, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
5. Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
6. Department of Pediatric Medicine, The Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
* These authors contribute equally to this work.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is an efficient therapeutic option to improve progress of lots of diseases especially hypoxia-related injuries, and has been clinically established as a wide-used therapy for patients with carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, arterial gas embolism, problematic wound, and so on. In the liver, most studies positively evaluated HBOT as a potential therapeutic option for liver transplantation, acute liver injury, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, fibrosis and cancer, especially for hepatic artery thrombosis. This might mainly attribute to the anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation of HBOT. However, some controversies are existed, possibly due to hyperbaric oxygen toxicity. This review summarizes the current understandings of the role of HBOT in liver diseases and hepatic regeneration. Future understanding of HBOT in clinical trials and its in-depth mechanisms may contribute to the development of this novel adjuvant strategy for clinical therapy of liver diseases.
Keywords: hyperbaric oxygen, liver diseases, toxicity