Northwestern physicians use oxygen therapy to treat ulcerative colitis

A group of physicians at Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine have started doing trials of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a treatment used for decompression sickness in scuba divers, to help patients with ulcerative colitis, ABC affiliate WQAD reported on July 20. 

While medications are successful in treating ulcerative colitis, 70 percent of patients lose response to them after a few years and require costly surgeries. 

The oxygen therapy has effectively stopped colon bleeding in patients in a phase 2 trial. 

During hyperbaric oxygen therapy, patients breathe in pure oxygen at higher than normal air pressure, which drives oxygen into the body's tissues, including the colon, according to the report.

After 90 minutes in an oxygen chamber, patients saw a stop in bleeding no more than five days later. These positive effects lasted for 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," Parambir Dulai, MD, a gastroenterologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, told WQAD.

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