Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Hi Codaz,
For the Netherlands you need a reference / doctor's letter. But to my information you do not need a reference for the MS Center...

 

I am going to do sessions at the IvHG, I needed a doctor's reference to get an ENT appointment. Then I needed an ENT reference to get a HBOT appointment at IvHG. They really insisted on getting the ENT reference from me before I took the first intake with them.

 

But at who's risk if there happens anything?

 

Good luck, message me in Dutch if you like in a PM to get some HBOT tips.

 

New interesting study: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00405-017-4784-4
Xie et al. (2018) Multivariate analysis of prognostic factors for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss treated with adjuvant hyperbaric oxygen therapy

 

Now it's been almost three (3) weeks from my last HBOT session, see my previous posts up there.

At the moment, for past week or so, my tinnitus has been gone completely or at least reduced down to level I can't register it anymore. Is this happening because of the treatment or despite of it... I don't know, but I only care that it is gone! You can draw your own conclusion.

All the best for all of you, I'll be back here if my T is back! Fingers crossed!

 

Of course, didn't know about that.

 

Thanks for the positive report Mikko. Did you have any sign of hearing loss on an audiogram?
It is good that you started the treatment early after onset. The sooner the better.

 

Thanks @Codaz.

No measurable loss. My hearing test results, the one that tops at 8kHz, were normal in both ears. Tinnitus was measured at around 11kHz. The professor-guy said that optimal time, based on their experience, is somewhere between 5 to 7 days. Not before to allow body's own "healing mechanisms" to kick in but then again as time passes, positive effects starts to decrease (meaning there is no change or the change is not optimal) .

Now, I'm not stating above as a fact, though, just quoting what I was told.

He also gave 2 hour lecture with Q&A (open and free for all) on tinnitus, mechanisms behind it and possible treatments in different scenarios. Previously he has, for example, treated personnel in military hospital's (Tilkka) HBOT unit. Based on this and discussions I had with him, I trust his expertise.

 

I think I want to try hbot even though it might be a little too late (T now for two month). The problem is I live in Denmark and there is no possibility to get the treatment here. I have found places in Germany (e.g. Hamburg) where they do the treatment. Do any of you guys know if I will need a reference from a doctor to get the treatment in Germany? And if so how do I get that? And what about the price for the treatment in Germany? I cant find it anywhere.

 

Come to Finland. In Helsinki Ear Institute (in Helsinki) you don't need doctor's reference. I think you need hotel for 5 days and around €900 for daily sessions.

 

Thanks Mikko, that could be an option, even though I will have to fly. One of the problems is that I'm having a cold (for 5 weeks now, wtf?). It has gotten a lot better and I think I can pressure equalize my ears, even though they click every time I swallow, but I will be a bit sad to find out I can't when sitting in an airplane

 

A German soccer player from Schalke was immediately send to the hyperbaric chamber after he was hit on the ear with a ball: http://www.t-online.de/gesundheit/i...eckt-hinter-einem-verletzten-trommelfell.html

And the Flemish prime minister was treated very soon as well: https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/30/europe/belgium-prime-minister-pistol-hearing-loss-trnd/index.html

So I doubt the internal healing process with such major impacts, I would rather say the sooner the better (as the limit is max 2 months as my Belgian ENT said).

It's good that there was no visible loss on your audiogram, I wish I had that. I had that from 2014-2016 (with TMJ tinnitus) but after that, and in 2017 I lost quite a lot of hearing in my left ear due to possible Meniere's starting :'(

 

Hi everyone,

Doing much better and I am happy to say my tinnitus is at an all time low *knock on wood*.
My bad days are my old best days.

But I've always wondered about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, wonder if it would have sped up my recovery, and potentially even beyond that.
Now it's weird that after 3 ENT's I had no one referring me to one.. and it's weird that I never felt compelled to go there, even though I've taken around ten kind of supplements.

My question, would oxygen therapy have it's use more than 14 month after "trauma"? Could it help to strengthen my haircells for future exposure for instance? And maybe get 100% rid of tinnitus?
It's a long shot, but hey, I am curious.

 

My Belgian ENT's said that after two months the effect is minimal to "no effect". I don't know which hospital you visited but @Jan64 did HBOT even years after onset so he is able to tell you more.

 

The nurse at HBOT center I went to said that taking sessions after 1 year does not have any effect, allas.
A study on the first page of this thread says differently:

 

I just finished 10 sessions of HBOT.
I found that each session made me very energetic and feeling really good. Its good for the overal health for sure.

To start out I had light T in my left ear and barely audable T in my right ear.
The volume in my left ear had a slight dip at about session 5.
I noticed that at session 8 my right ear felt a little painfull and the volume increased to light T levels.
The volume in my right ear dropped to almost unaudable levels at the start of day 10.
At this very moment at the end of day 10, T has re-apeared in my right ear.

My referal stated that I was going to go in for 10 hyperbaric sessions. I wanted to do more sessions but the doctor at the HBOT center refused to give me more sessions because of the lack of improvement and he feared further sessions might make my T worse.

I have to say that: I was still on a high dose of prednison while starting this treatment so that caused a big spike in T levels which thereafter went back to baseline again.
The HBOT center logged my T volume day by day. They where happy it improved from a level 3 to a level 2 but... then I told them that the volume increased and decreased because of the prednison I was taking, complicating the matter.
The docter concluded no improvement had taken place and refused to give me more sessions.
I am thinking of going back to my ENT and getting a new referal to then do new sessions... like bypassing the docter at the HBOT center... but that would not be very polite I think.
I wonder if the docter there can, just block a patient from doing more sessions?
I am really stressing out about the spike but also about discontinuing further sessions.

 

Does anyone know if doing 20 sessions might bring results, 10 sessions didn't bring that much results. So I'm wondering if more might help. Man I really don't like this T thing.

 

I did HBOT after an aggravation (already having T for several years..), the aggravation was solved for about half... According to research HBOT is effective after 3 month...

 

I did 21 HBOT sessions after 2-3 months of onset, not 1% change in my tinnitus.

 

Doctor at the hyperbaric chamber is end responsible. And HBOT is pretty safe but it is not for nothing that a doctor is attained to the chamber.

 

I'm wondering what the average number of HBOT sessions is around here.
Also did you have a reduction because of it?

I wanted to put a poll in here but that did not work.

 

10

 

20

 

10

 

10

 

I suffered SSNHL on 11/12/17, 12 days after, I received my first injection in my ear of steroids, and began oral steroid treatment. Eventually, got 3 total injections, and oral steroids. When I finished, my hearing improved slightly, and the numbness to my face and ear almost completely resolved. I had a light ringing in my right ear, but totally liveable, compared with what some of you faced. I also took multivitamins, and gingko biloba supplements everyday. Got clear MRI, and went to House Ear Clinic in Downtown Los Angeles.

After realizing doctors know nothing about SSNHL, I tried hyperbaric treatments. I received 20 treatments, they did absolutely nothing. Personally, I believe most "studies" are contrived and fake, as the researchers must show results to justify their time, and more importantly their "donors" investment in them. I would like to mention, after receiving the hyperbaric treatments (I did almost all large, metal, high pressure, not soft shell, and not small chamber) AND going to the gym afterwards, I would suffer mild tinnitus in the OTHER ear, which was much louder. I literally prayed to God it wasn't permanent. Both times I did HOT AND went to the gym afterwords, I got a mild buzzing, which was loud enough to scare me. It's now been 6 months, and my hearing is still very poor in my right ear.

Went to Costco to look into hearing aids, but I can live with the loss of hearing, and after trying the hearing aid on, I didn't find it to be worth it.

I was an avid scuba diver prior to this "condition", and now am scared to scuba dive, as my condition is completely tolerable, although not perfect, right now. Anybody scuba dived after SSNHL? Any words of caution to avoid things that make it worse? The house ear clinic adamantly told me to avoid loud noises. But had little other advise.

 

I am very sorry for what happened to you. But for your outlook on research, this couldn't be further from the truth. First off, even failing to reject the null hypothesis can be valuable. Especially if they are doing a one side test vs two. Secondly, funders usually want results. That doesn't always mean positive, but they want to see a well run trial that answers their question.

 

I do believe there is some truth to that. Like I've mentioned earlier in this thread, there are only couple of studies about HBOT and all of them controversial. And the rest of the stuff you hear are always from the staff and companies that offer HBOT treatments themselves, so of course they're going to shill the heck out of it. These are the same companies that claim that the treatment might cure autism. So at the end of the day, it's like any homeopathy treatment; you can't prove or disprove that it works...so it's perfect, you can provide a service that doesn't have to deliver.