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Letter to the Editor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2005

Lindell Weaver
Affiliation:
Department of Hyperbaric Medicine, LDS Hospital, 8 Avenue & C Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84143, Email: lweaver@ihc.com
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Extract

To the Editor: I read with interest the research note by Saunders (2) in the Summer 2003 issue of International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Although this article was published in 2003 and stated to have been a thorough review of hyperbaric oxygen randomized clinical trials, our double-blind randomized control trial in acute carbon monoxide poisoning published in 2002 (4) was not mentioned, except as a blinded interim analysis (3). Our randomized clinical trial was considered a landmark study by Journal Watch–Emergency Medicine (1). Our clinical trial demonstrated a 46 percent reduction in cognitive sequelae at 6 weeks following poisoning, which was maintained 1 year after poisoning.

Type
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Copyright
© 2005 Cambridge University Press

To the Editor: I read with interest the research note by Saunders (2) in the Summer 2003 issue of International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. Although this article was published in 2003 and stated to have been a thorough review of hyperbaric oxygen randomized clinical trials, our double-blind randomized control trial in acute carbon monoxide poisoning published in 2002 (4) was not mentioned, except as a blinded interim analysis (3). Our randomized clinical trial was considered a landmark study by Journal Watch–Emergency Medicine (1). Our clinical trial demonstrated a 46 percent reduction in cognitive sequelae at 6 weeks following poisoning, which was maintained 1 year after poisoning.

I hope Dr. Saunders acknowledges these results and contemplates modifying his recommendations regarding the role of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for patients with acute carbon monoxide poisoning.

References

Bohan JS. 2002 Benefit of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for acute carbon monoxide poisoning. Journal Watch, Emergency Medicine. 6: 1.Google Scholar
Saunders PJ. 2003 Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the management of carbon monoxide poisoning, osteoradionecrosis, burns, skin grafts, and crush injury. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 19: 521525.Google Scholar
Weaver LK, Hopkins RO, Larson-Lohr V, et al. 1995 Double blind, controlled, prospective randomized clinical trial (RCT) in patients with acute carbon monoxide poisoning: Outcome of patients treated with normobaric or hyperbaric oxygen (HBO2)—An interim report. Undersea Hyperb Med. 22 (Suppl): 14.Google Scholar
Weaver LK, Hopkins RO, Chan KJ, et al. 2002 Hyperbaric oxygen for acute carbon monoxide poisoning. N Engl J Med. 347: 10571067.Google Scholar