Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Liver Diseases

Abstract

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.

Figure 1

HBOT in liver diseases. In liver, immediate HBOT reduces inflammation and oxidant stress to protect hepatocytes in liver injury. HBOT also facilitates hepatocyte proliferation and improves fibrogenesis. HBOT inhibits bacterial translocation to attenuate sepsis-induced liver injury. In addition, HBOT is definitely an effective therapy for artery thrombosis. Even though the role of HBO in liver cancer cell proliferation is undetermined, combination of HBOT and radiotherapy or chemotherapy sensitive cancer cells to death. However, improper HBOT leads to increase of oxidant stress and hepatotoxicity.